Growing Your LinkedIn Network - DOs and DON’Ts

LinkedIn is first and foremost a virtual networking tool. It is designed to connect you with other professionals online through mutual experience and acquaintances. Because of this, everything on LinkedIn is easier when you have more connections, but it’s a bit of a catch 22. It’s easier to grow your network when you have a more extensive network. You see more people, you have more 2nd and 3rd connections, and you are a more desirable connection. Growing your network with quality connections in the industry you sell to or want to work in might be easier than you think. 

DO 

Start by adding people you know. 

While it’s great to have a lot of high-level connections, start with people you know well. Friends from work or school, former colleagues, vendors, or partners you’ve worked with. If you are starting from scratch, it’s important to add people you know first.

DON’T

Connect with everyone LinkedIn suggests.

While LinkedIn suggestions are a great place to start when growing your network, it can also be a way for LinkedIn to try to nudge less active users to be more active on their platform. Sending an email saying “John Smith wants to connect” is more likely to get an inactive user to log in than “We missed you and want you to spend more time on LinkedIn!” This isn’t necessarily bad, but they are less likely to accept your request than active users and slow your growth.

DON’T 

Send 100s of requests every day. 

LinkedIn works hard to prevent spam requests from people blindly looking to grow their contacts. Sending hundreds of requests a day is an easy way to get flagged as spam. Your account will likely get blocked or even banned. 

DO 

Add 5-10 people a day. 

Instead, adding ten people a day means you are sending 150-300 requests a month. This will add up even if a few of your requests miss or take time because they aren’t as active. 

DO 

Grow your network based on mutual connections to an industry you want more connections. 

You can filter searches by 2nd connection, making it much more likely to connect. Spend some time figuring out why you have those connections. Maybe you went to the same school or previously worked in the same industry. Once you know what the link is, send a note along with your request so they don’t have to do the work you did to figure out why you should connect.

DON’T 

Try to leverage connections you don’t know well. 

While it’s great to reference mutual connections, make sure it’s someone who will say good things about you if asked. When you send a message that says, “I see we’ve both worked with Jane Anderson,” and then Jane says, “I have no idea who that is” or worse, “I worked with her a while ago, and it went poorly” that can be an issue. Make sure you only leverage connections that you are confident will say good things. 

DO 

Find current or former co-workers from company pages. 

Under the “People” tab on the company LinkedIn page, you’ll find the current employees. Add people who you know, even if you didn’t work together directly.

DON’T 

Connect with everyone at a company you want to work with. 

While it’s great to connect with your past colleagues or current customers, sending requests to people you hope to work with in the future can be tricky. If you send requests, make sure that you build on existing connections, which can be a person or even an experience you have in common. In those cases, also be sure to include a note explaining the connection request.

DO

Find groups related to your industry or interests and send requests to members. 

Groups on LinkedIn are a great way to find connections interested in the same industry or subject as you. They are often more active than the average user and are probably also looking to grow their network. Plus, it’s a straightforward opening message, “I noticed you are also in the Medical Sales group. I would love to connect so we can learn from and support one another.” 

DON’T

Send more than one connection to the same person. 

In addition to having your send request to less active users, LinkedIn sometimes suggests sending requests to the same user more than once. Keep an eye out for someone who looks familiar. If you think you’ve already sent a request, click into their profile to see if it says “Pending.” 

Want more suggestions on how to use LinkedIn to build your professional brand? Sign up for my newsletter

Looking for more help with your professional brand? Book an appointment