Step-By-Step – How I got 10,000 LinkedIn connections in 15 years

LinkedIn is awesome. I fucking love LinkedIn (as well as NKOTB). Always have. Since joining in 2008ish. It’s been my sanctuary; my kink; my guilty pleasure; my networking tool; and now, much of my job.

I know what you’re thinking.

“Huh? 10,000! That’s hardly an achievement of the century — especially given how long it took him.”

I wholeheartedly agree. But it’s a lot of connections, you have to admit.

To me, the idea that one should know – as in, have met in person – those in their network always seemed to be at odds with what LinkedIn had clearly been expressly invented for. Which is, in a word, ‘nosiness’. Some may call it ‘curiosity’... but potato, potarto.

As all good social networks know, humankind’s innate urge to acquire information about the lives of others has been as much a guiding force of progression since time immemorial.?

We have one way, they have another. Arguably such curiosity was vital to our survival, esp. during times of rock-dwelling, bearskins, and spears.?

We’re also social, largely pack animals, us humans. We seek out familiarity. But familiarity takes many guises – not least common interest.

So if LinkedIn is a place where we as ‘pedigree professionals’ (hat tip: Sloane B. ) seek familiarity in the form of community X common interest, the resulting use case must have some consistency, right??

Well yes… and no. Most people change jobs. And often industries. But on LinkedIn they retain the digital connections made despite their IRL changes. I myself can count connections spanning construction equipment, PR, advertising, tech, and more recently, cannabis, across the years.?

And yes, there is a thriving cannabis industry community here; and LinkedIn is perhaps the most accommodating of cannabis, of all social media platforms.?

So… 10,000 eh? Like I said before, it’s a lot – made all the less impressive by how long it took me. The how, I guess is implied: change careers and sectors for a rich and diverse tapestry of LinkedIn connections.?

But that aside, early on (like after 18 months of joining – so 2009) I wilfully resolved to connect like a motherfucker. It was a numbers game. I’d been made redundant for a second time and fatherhood was impending. I wanted to lean into those I’d seen and heard of as well as those I’d met in person. I needed to expand my network.?

Plus I wanted to have the much coveted ‘500+ connections’ label on my profile - the point at which the actual number of connections you have is immaterial: confirmation that you’ve ascended a tier of some sort. The struggle was real.?

Then, as my own numbers grew, so did the requests for my hand in connectionship. And I took everyone of ‘em until very recently.?

So the ‘Step-By-Step’ approach to getting to 10,000 connections takes a perfect storm of fear, desperation, curiosity (ok, nosiness), career shifts, sector changes, and good old fashioned time itself.

I’m not naive enough to say ‘there is no other way’. There are probably many different – much faster and much less time-consuming – ways to acquire such numbers. But it’s not so much the numbers that count. It’s the perspectives you are made privy to that count; the insights we glean. And of course, the connections we make.?

I have to say one more thing – don’t be afraid of sharing minutiae on LinkedIn. If you have a wide enough network there will always be someone who appreciates your otherwise unique set of challenges too.?

And no, LinkedIn didn’t pay me to write this (yet).