One to Hundreds of LinkedIn Profile Views: Should You Connect or Not?

Every day, I receive email notifications about the number of people looking at my LinkedIn profile. Typically, it’s around 300. Why do people look at LinkedIn profiles but never connect?

Perhaps, people new to LinkedIn want to view other profile pages to learn how to create theirs. Or, are looking for jobs, searching for candidates, and trying to sell products or services.

When I get an InMail from someone who wants to “grow their following,” I always hesitate. I want to be helpful, but after all, shouldn’t networking be two-way? Some people recommend connecting with everyone to expand your network. Others suggest to only connect with people with whom you have something in-common.

Go Beyond Connecting with Industry Peers

I understand the pros and cons of both. If you only connect with your like-minded peers, you won’t learn about others who are providing interesting insights and thought-leadership. As an agency owner, I do marketing, social media, and public relations, and learn from others in my field.

Several years ago, I was unable to obtain earned media for a mobile app company, LiveCode and had to find a solution. I taught myself Twitter in one weekend and found a news hook: Microsoft was hiring individuals with autism to code apps. LiveCode was teaching individuals with autism to code apps. With one tweet, I obtained global social media coverage, which drove earned media in CNNTech and CNNMoney, to name a few.

I was hooked. I began following industry experts like, Neil Patel @neilpatel, Jeff Bullas @JeffBullas, Gini Dietrich @ginidietrich, Larry Kim @LarryKim, Jay Baer @Jay Baer, Mike Steltner @mike_stelzner, Ann Handley @MarketingProfs, Gary Vaynerchuk @garyve, and many more.

Once I obtained a new client, I read everything I could find about the industry sector in which they worked. Twitter is like reading the Sunday Times, in an hour. Now, I’ve grown a community of followers across a wide variety of industry sectors, including, financial services, FinTech, technology, AI, blockchain and others in B2B2C.

Being interested in broader topics beyond your industry, helps you grow and expands your skillset. If you don’t know what to tweet, post, write or share, consider what David Ogilvy, Founder of Ogilvy, and Father of Advertising said, “I don’t know the rules of grammar…if you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think.”

If you’re writing to someone in marketing, view their website, read about them on LinkedIn, think about their needs and pain points and write to them about how you may be able to help.

If you want to connect with a person in the media, read the articles they write, follow them on Twitter and get to know how they think. Then, propose an expert as background for future stories, provide a different perspective on the topic, or pitch a guest for a podcast.

For example, I read that Brett King @BrettKing, the host of the FinTech Radio Show Breaking Banks travels a lot so I chose to connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter, rather than sending an email which would probably end up at the bottom of his inbox.

Research and Learn about Trending Topics

There are many other topics that cut across all professions. We can grow our skill sets by reading. If you've just started your career, learn about mentorship, and find communities of like-minded people. If you're in the C-Suite, follow leaders who use their influence and status to make a difference in world. View Fortune magazine's 2018 world's greatest leaders to learn more. You can take a course, attend a conference or an event to meet people.

By 2020, half of the U.S. workers will be freelancers. LinkedInProFinder is a platform for connecting freelancers. Perhaps you can create a “side-gig” or another income stream. For example, artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how we live, communicate, and work. It’s expected to have an impact on every industry within the next five years.

AI is impacting businesses, consumers, finance, HR, healthcare, industrial products, energy, education, art, manufacturing, cryptocurrency, law, marketing, and public relations, to name a few. It’s critical to stay up-to-date to remain relevant.

Rather than just trying to connect, read about what others are doing and talking about to help expand your knowledge base. I use LinkedIn like other social media platforms to follow people, join groups, comment, and share articles. Be sure to offer something of value, to be viewed as a trustworthy professional.

During difficult times, social media may be the only way we can stay connected. In August, 2018, Adweek discussed the fact that "natural disasters are seemingly on the rise. Social media, with its instant ability to connect, is one of the most powerful ways to stay in touch."

Social media helped me when I was immobile for five months after a taxi and truck crash. Wanting to stay connected to my career, I used social media to ask for help. Among others, I reached-out to Deirdre Breakenridge @dbreakenridge whom I'd never met but whose work I admired.

After her lengthy response, we arranged a time to speak, and have been close colleagues and friends ever since. People say a lot of negative things about social media but if we choose, we can meet people anywhere in the world.

Networking is about building and nurturing relationships, not growing your number of followers. Connect with people after you do your research. Identify areas in which you can help. Write brief, but personal messages that say why you want to connect.

Eight Tips to Help You Connect

1. Insure your profile is up-to-date

Post a professional photo with an original headline that immediately illustrates what you do. People look closely at your profile when connecting. It’s the first impression of your personal brand so you have to stand out and elaborate about your “all-star” profile status.

2. Keep the conversation going after events

If you attend a conference, an event, or Meetup and speak with people, connect with them right away to continue the conversation. Or, if you enjoyed a speaker’s presentation, let them know what you liked and how it’s helped you.

3. Send personal business messages

Writing, I’d love to add you to my connections is generic. Instead, try, I’d like to connect with you because I’m a big fan of your, “Podcast, publication, blog or company name” and would like to discuss how we can help one another. Or, add a additional comment about an article they're written.

4. Think before you hit, “send”

If you ask someone to connect and they don’t respond, move on. Otherwise, continued messages can come off as spam. People have different rules about how they use LinkedIn. Be respectful of others points-of-view.

5. Connect with people you know

Even if you haven’t met, you may have people you both know in-common. Or, if the person is an industry thought-leader or expert, you can follow them and comment on their articles.

6. Always be professional

Be courteous and don’t waste people’s time by being sending generic emails or promotions that look like email blasts. Change your business outreach model to helping others solve their problems, or fulfill a need, rather than pushing products and services.

7. Share something of value

A published article about your company, product or service is third-party credibility and builds trust. Comment, share and like people’s articles, as opposed to making it about you. Build a community of business development, learning, helping and being active.

8. Use authentic imagery (if possible) and videos

If you attend an event, take photos and videos to share on LinkedIn and other social media platforms. Recently, LinkedIn added a new user interface, changed the way text displays when posting links, added GIF integration with messaging, and videos for company pages.

Videos drive engagement. In fact, 59% of business executives say that if text and video are available on the same topic, they’re more likely to choose video.

My LinkedIn goal this week is to look beyond my viewer numbers, and actually take the time to learn about new people who want to connect with me. After all, if people have taken the time to view me, I want to appreciate their efforts and respond in-kind.

You can find me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook business, and Pinterest. I look forward to connecting with you.