Reach Out: How to Connect with the Right People on LinkedIn

As a professional, I know that LinkedIn is the world's largest online professional network, with over 800+ million members from 55 million registered companies. It's an excellent platform for growing your business, networking and expanding your company. However, despite its wide reach, connecting with people and networking on LinkedIn can be challenging, especially if you're new to the platform. The truth is, using LinkedIn can be confusing and the platform doesn't come with a manual on how to build a professional description, approach recruiters, gain followers, or foster professional ties. But that's where I can take help to make it easy for you. 

Despite the abundance of opportunities available on LinkedIn, it can be difficult to locate the appropriate contacts and receive replies to your messages. In this guide, I am going to show you how to find valuable connections- be it someone from a similar industry, a crucial decision-maker or a recruiter, and ways to get responses to your messages to avoid them being ignored.

How to Find the Right Contacts on LinkedIn When looking for a new contact or a key decision-maker, the search bar on LinkedIn is the first place to start your search.

One way to find connections on LinkedIn is by using keywords, names, companies, or any variations thereof in the search bar. If you're not aware of the person's name but know the company they work for, you can search for their job title and the company name. For instance, "Marketing Manager Prominence Global" or "Copywriter LinkedIn News." After that, you can filter the results by people to see the profiles of those who match your search. Another way to connect with people in your industry is by typing your industry in the search bar and then filtering the results by people. To get more specific results, you can add a location, job title, or company name. This will give you more common points of connection. The more common points of connection you have with someone, the more likely they are to connect, engage, and help you.

5 steps to Establish Connections with (Nearly) Anyone on LinkedIn

1. Make a good first impression: When someone receives your connection request, they will likely look at your profile to determine the reason for connecting with you. To make it clear why they should connect with you, make sure your headline clearly states your profession and the impact it has. Check out mine in the example below: 

The way you present yourself will vary depending on your profession and personal characteristics. However, it's important to not just include your job title in your profile. Also, when it comes to the "About" section, a common mistake is to only talk about oneself instead of highlighting the value one can provide to a specific audience. While there's nothing wrong with being proud of your accomplishments, it's important to present your background in the context of how you can assist others.

Please see my profile here for an example of how I have optimised my profile. 

If you have a strong headline and a well-written "About" section, you're on the right track. However, to truly stand out, it's important to also post content that showcases your unique personality and expertise. This will help answer the question "Why should I connect with this person?"

2. Identify the people you want to connect with: The purpose of sending a connection request is to establish a meaningful and potentially beneficial relationship. It doesn't need to be a life-changing one but there should be a purpose for connecting. Depending on who you are and what you do, the purpose may include exploring partnership opportunities, interviewing them for a LinkedIn article or sharing valuable information. The key here is to be intentional about the people you reach out to.

Some reasons why it may be a good idea to connect with someone include:

• seeking press and podcast appearances
• growing your professional network, 
• developing potential partnerships, 
• nurturing business prospects 

It's worth noting that simply engaging with their content is not a reason to connect. If you just want to see their posts, you can hit the "Follow" button in their profile and see their content in your feed without being connected. The idea here is to provide a reason for connecting.

3. Engage with their content: I suggest reviewing the profiles of the people you've identified for connection once daily to see if they have posted any new content. This will only take about five minutes and will help you respond to their posts promptly.

When you see that they've posted new content, it's important to engage with it. Instead of leaving a generic comment like "Good post!" or "amazing share!", make sure to acknowledge their post while also sharing your own perspective. To increase the likelihood of getting a response, consider asking a question in your comment.

By consistently engaging in this way, you will gain a deeper understanding of the person's personality and how you can contribute to the conversation.

4. Craft a custom message with your connection request: After investing time and effort in building a relationship, it's time to send a connection request. Since recipients likely receive many requests, it's important to make yours stand out by personalising it. Customising the message goes beyond simply including their name or something you learned from quickly scanning their profile. The more tailored the message, the higher the chance of receiving a response.

Here are two ways to personalise your connection request:

• Ask a sincere question
• Give a genuine compliment

The objective is to demonstrate that you are reaching out to them specifically and not just connecting with people randomly.

5. Follow up on your request: If after following the above advice, the person still doesn't reply, don't take it personally as they may have many pending requests and haven't had a chance to go through them. After a few days, consider bringing up the connection request in a comment on one of their posts as a reminder.

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