Time Hack to Thoughtfully Grow Your LinkedIn Network in 10 minutes a Day

Get on LinkedIn, they said. It’s for growing my network and finding jobs, they said.

Well you did, and it didn’t.

You’re uber busy trying to constantly upskill or just stay up-to-date professionally, how the heck do you have time for LinkedIn when it doesn’t work anyways, right??

Ehhhh. It depends. :)?

LinkedIn is a tool. Like any tool, when it’s in the hands of one who knows how to wield it, masterpieces take shape and opportunities open up.

I’d argue the vast majority of professionals on the LinkedIn platform are throwing paint cans at a canvas hoping for a masterpiece.

In reality, though, learning how to use LinkedIn effectively isn’t exclusive to the few, though it does require investment of time (read on for a way to streamline) and consistency.

And dare I say as a cybersecurity professional, you’ve actually got much of the skill set needed, you just need to shift your thinking to apply some of that strategy to your digital networking efforts.

Define your goals

First, do a tabletop exercise with yourself. What’s your goals for using the platform? Do you want to:

• Grow professionally, learn new skills?
• Find a new job?
• Increase your professional branding/visibility?

Once you have that then it will help you choose where to focus your time and efforts so you can be intentional and effective with minimum time seep.

Grow your network in 10 minutes a day

I can’t cover everything in one article, so for now, I want to focus on how you can expand your network in a meaningful, targeted way in as little as 10 minutes a day.

This is a simple hack I learned from LinkedIn expert Jonathan Palmer to help grow your network and professional visibility (I modified it a bit for the busy cyber individual).

Before we can get to that 10 minutes, however, there does need to be a little legwork invested first.

For starters, answer the above - what’s your goal for using LinkedIn? Got that? Good.

Now, we’re going to identify the ideal connections who align with that goal.

Build the ideal persona profile

Yes, you’re going to do a form of profiling and identify people whom you would find interesting to learn from and connect with - those whose content you find insightful; or whose professional views align with yours or challenges it thoughtfully, etc; but you’re looking for individuals who will be relevant to the goal you established for yourself.

For example, if you’re job hunting, you may consider professionals in similar departments you're looking to join, or managers who would oversee that role you’re interested in, as well as identifying new peers in your field.?

If you’re looking to simply grow in your professional knowledge and network then consider individuals in similar fields but different industries, or those with complimentary skills to yours or who are in a role that you aspire to fill one day.?

One advantage of being in cybersecurity is it is such a layered industry, also consider roles that work in tangent to your own or even slightly removed but complimentary.

Drill down a little more

Once you’ve identified a general profile of individuals and have a pool of 8-10 people that would be interesting to connect with (or perhaps are already connected with), segment the list down a little further.

The big 3

From that list of professionals, narrow it down to three profiles who:

• are ACTIVELY posting (meaning they post interesting and relevant content 2-3x/week minimum)
• have an engaged audience (people are not only liking but commenting/participating in the convo)
• have a relatively large following (in the cyber world, I recommend looking for roughly 10K+, if possible)

The small but mighty 2

Then also identify from your pool of connections, two more individuals who:

• Are also ACTIVELY posting (same as above)
• Have an engaged audience (but it could be less so)
• Have a smaller following (500 - 9K)

Note: The number of followers is a general guideline, not hard and fast.?

The main difference between the group of three and the group of two is the former have larger followings and are very visible professionally;? the latter are solid professionals in their own right with great information and content, they just happen to have a smaller audience but who are still very active and engaged. (I’ll explain why distinguish between them later.)

Now that you’ve got a list of five profiles of professionals who are interesting and professionally relevant to you, there’s one last step to set up.

Bookmark their Post URL for easy access. What do I mean?

-> Open the profile page of each of the 5 individuals you’ve identified

-> Navigate down to the Activity Section and click ‘See All Activity’.?

-> Select ‘Posts’ tab across the top of the next page

-> Bookmark this URL in a folder on your bookmarks bar for each of the five profiles

This ‘bookmark step’ is the key to maintain a focused “10 minutes a day” for working on networking. In other words, it is my non-techy way to address quickly accessing each person’s most recent posts directly so I can quickly engage with individuals without getting sucked into the vortex of scrolling the feed.

If, however, there’s some nifty script you can write to provide you further timesavers, by all means, use your mad tech skillz. :)

Now what?

Commit and engage. Commit to spending 10 minutes a day checking the latest activities of the five individuals you’ve determined you want to connect with and nurture a relationship with.?

See what their latest post is and engage through contributing to the conversation they have started.

Now this is where some people tend to forget their social skills on a social platform.

Please avoid empty platitudes or constantly writing you’re “looking for a job, do they know anyone” - that’s a wasted opportunity to build a real relationship and show your own professional insights!?

When I say “contribute to the conversation”, really strive for that. Think how you can add value to the post that was shared. Do you have a different experience? Or an insight from a different industry on a similar situation? Or just have an observation about the latest cyber attack reported?

Remember, these are people you’ve identified as wanting to engage with and you have an opening to do so via their posts. Use it wisely and the natural networking can more easily follow.

Oh, and what’s the deal with distinguishing between people with large followings vs those with smaller follower counts? The larger followings allows your thoughtful comments to be seen by more eyes on account of the original poster’s audience size while the OP personally may or may not be able to respond to each and every comment. So it may be less personable but still worthwhile due to other potential conversations that may arise from other engaged posters on the thread.?

The persons with a smaller following is really more of an opportunity to have a more personalized engagement as they typically appreciate engagement from their small audience and are able to reply more easily to comments and thus opens the door for conversation.?

And the 3/2 split isn’t hard and fast, it’s merely a guide to get you started and to keep your time on LinkedIn focused and short.

I challenge you to check in and engage (as relevant) daily during the work week for a month, spending just 2 minutes on each person’s post for the day for your 10 minutes a day.?

Then evaluate and see what natural networking, conversations and possible opportunities open up.?

And I’d love to hear how it’s going so feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and let me know!