Starting Again On LinkedIn - What Would I Do Differently?

7 years ago, a business associate introduced me to LinkedIn as well as Ecademy, a similar on-line networking website. It didn't take me long to determine that LinkedIn was the site I should invest my time on but looking back would I have approached things differently?

Currently, my LinkedIn network sits at around 5000 1st degree connections, connections who are made up of an extremely diverse audience, including; university students, CEO's of industry, recruitment specialists, SME business owners, heads of law firms, the list goes on.

Why have such a large network?

Early on in my LinkedIn journey, I understood the power of connectivity, using LinkedIn's network of 3 degrees.

Here's how LinkedIn's network open's up a world of access to professionals, who you would like to be doing business with. By connecting with someone in your market, let's say it's a partner in a law firm, you can safely assume that they have previously connected with others in their industry sector, probably at a similar level, for the purposes of networking - by connecting with this person, your one law sector connection has now provided you with let's say a dozen more law professionals, who are connected at the 1st degree with him/her and who are now just one step or in this case one degree away from you. And let's say those dozen law professionals have each connected with 12 law sector professionals also, which in turn, adds a further 144 law connections to your network, this time 3 steps away from you at your 3rd degree.

Why is this connectivity so powerful?

It's true that if one of your 1st degree connections chooses to hide their own list of 1st degree connections, by selecting 'Only You' from their settings, then you will not be able to view their dozen or so law sector contacts. However, if you understand that LinkedIn is a searchable database and that each time you use the Advanced People Search , in this case entering the key words of 'law' or 'lawyer' or 'solicitor', then LinkedIn will present more detailed profile search results, at the 2nd and 3rd degree level, the better connected, at the 1st degree you become, with people who also have these job roles.  

So, what I understood, several years ago was; the better connected I become, with random individuals, the more full profiles I get to see of similar people in their networks, which is a great strategy if you're market is quite diverse.

Would I approach things differently now?

In a word yes, I think I would. If you read my recent LinkedIn post, Your LinkedIn Mission For 2016 Is To Focus On The 2% I talk about focusing on the 2% of your target audience who get you - they understand what you do and why you do it and as a result are drawn to you, rather than you having to chase them.

In 2016, my business is definitely changing its focus and approach and in doing so, I will be working much more with my 2% - it just makes sense, because probably like you, I don't have time to try and convince the other 98% that they should be working with me. What would I do differently then, if I was starting over on LinkedIn? Well firstly, I'd build a more exclusive network of connections, connections who themselves are well connected with similar, like-minded professionals, because like usually attracts like.

What would be different if you chose to build a 2% network?

If you chose to only connect with those who are in your target market, you would;

• Mainly see posts and updates in your Home page news feed from people you are really interested in.
• The people who viewed your profile would mainly be people of interest to you.
• The connections updates, showing birthdays and anniversaries, which you should be engaging with, would be mainly people you'd want to be keeping in touch with.
• You'd be a member of half a dozen LinkedIn groups, not 50 - you'd have time to be involved in relevant discussions and network with more of the right people.
• You'd receive Company page updates that were useful to you because you'd chosen to follow relevant companies and not just those that someone suggested you should follow.
• You'd be seen by more of the right people, when they saw viewed their connections profiles and saw you in their network of 1st degree connections.

In short, if you choose to focus on your 2%, when building your LinkedIn network, you'll get to see the wood for the trees, engage more frequently, enjoy the process more and you would do more business.

Do I regret my approach to building a diverse LinkedIn network during the past 7 years? No, not at all. As I've used LinkedIn every day since 2008, I have learned how to benefit from such a large network and how to reach an audience of millions and often some of my most random connections have led me to others who have become my clients and some of those randoms have, themselves become clients also.

To quote from the 1970's TV series Kung Fu, when a young Caine asks, "What is a tree without roots?", the wise Master Kan replies " The deeper into the earth the roots reach, the stronger the tree."  What would I do if starting over again on LinkedIn? I'd first dig deeper roots to strengthen my LinkedIn tree.

Many thanks for reading this.  If you liked it please click on Like and share it.  Constructive comments are always welcome and if you have questions on the subject matter you can connect with me on LinkedIn and send me a message, or else you’ll find my contact details on my LinkedIn profile uk.linkedin.com/in/stevephillip.

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