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How I Built 2,200 Profitable Connections on LinkedIn
The networking strategy that works
Over the last 6 months on LinkedIn, I’ve quadrupled the views of my profiles, trebled the views of my posts but most importantly, built over 2,000 connections that have led to new clients and some awesome projects.
The secret? An engagement process that involves identifying the right people and engineering connections with them by remembering that it’s a social networking site — you need to be social (engage) and you need to network (engage) — engagement, engagement, engagement. Not selling. Not full of self-promotion.
And it all starts by knowing who to talk to…
Finding Your Targets
You have multiple options for identifying the people you want to connect with on LinkedIn and build relationships with. It could be your CRM, maybe using the search function on LinkedIn or setting up alerts on Google.
With some of this you’ll have a company name rather than an individual, if that is the case, then search that company on LinkedIn and find the person you need. For me that is usually the key decision-maker, the CEO or MD but for you that might be a buyer, head of content or marketing director.
Once you have these names, depending on the volume you need for your purposes, you might store them in a notes tool, in a spreadsheet or maybe a CRM. If you start using Sales Navigator, you could store them inside that application. Now it’s time to start engaging them.
Learn About Them
You have two avenues to understand them — their profile and their activity.
Let us start with the profile, as that’s simpler. Take the time to read it, look for the things they talk about, the problems they solve and the things that interest them. This information will be critical in starting up a conversation. Imagine going to an in-person networking event and someone introduced themselves by telling you all the details about their working lives — pretty good headstart I’d think.
So don’t waste this amazing opportunity to learn about this prospect. There about me section will give you so much about what motivates them. The headline is…
