TIN #009 - How To Network On LinkedIn - Part 1

You know you should use it, but you're not sure how

Sep 24, 2022

Good Morning 👋 - Greg here.

Happy Saturday morning to everyone who is networking and connecting this week.

For the next few weeks, I’m going to be focusing on using LinkedIn to grow your network. Let me know in the comments if you have questions about LinkedIn you’d like me to answer.

Today’s issue takes about 4 minutes to read.

Networking on LinkedIn

Say "LinkedIn" and people think of a professional networking platform.

And most of them are using it wrong.

Here are some of the mistakes I see:

Lurking - Scrolling without liking or commenting
Limited Use - Logging in only when you're searching for a job
Unfocused Connecting - Connecting with anyone and everyone
Overbearing Introductions - Coming on too strong after connecting

On LinkedIn, your goal is to start online conversations with people who can connect you to opportunities.

To do this, you need to:

Show up consistently
Engage with other people's content
Have a plan for making new connections
Make it "safe" for others to start a conversation with you

The Right Way To Use LinkedIn For Networking:

Let's say you currently have a job, but you're not excited about it.

You're thinking about making a change.

You want to learn about other opportunities at different companies.

We'll assume you have a complete LinkedIn profile. It has a headline that tells people what you do, a professional profile picture, and a detailed About section. If this isn’t you, there are tons of FREE resources available to help you with this.

You log onto LinkedIn every once in while, but you're unsure who you should be connecting with.

You're also not sure what you should say when you send a connection request.

What do you do?

The first thing you need to do is create your Target Company List (TCL). If you don't know what this is or how to create one, look at TIN #005 and #006.

When you know which companies you are targeting, you're going to find people who work at those companies.

Go to your LinkedIn home page:

Click My Network
Click Connections
Click Search With Filters
Click All Filters

You’ll see a search box called “Filter only People by”

Select 1st and 2nd Degree Connections.
Under Current Company, click Add a company.
Type in the name of one of the companies on your TCL.
Click Show Results.

Now what?

Start scrolling through the list.

If you see people who are 1st degree connections, that's great news.

You’re already connected with someone at one of your target companies.

Consider reconnecting with them.

If they’re someone you know in real life, send them a message similar to what I described in TIN #002:

"Hey, it's been a while since we were in touch. How are things going?"

If you don't know them beyond LinkedIn, you could send them a message like this:

"I see we're 1st degree connections on LinkedIn, but we don't know each other. I also see you're at <<name of the company.>> What do you think of it? The reason I ask is I am interested in learning more about <<company name>> and would love to get your thoughts about it. I also know you're probably very busy so no worries if you don't have time to respond."

This is a version of connection messages Austin Belcak teaches.

If you don't follow him on LinkedIn, you should.

He's got tons of great advice on using LinkedIn to find a job.

If people in the results list are 2nd degree connections, you could do one of two things:

1. Connect

2. Follow

This week, I’m going to talk about Connecting; next week, I’ll talk about Following.

When you’re connecting with a new person on LinkedIn, you should always add a note to your connection request. You have 300 characters to introduce yourself to this new person.

If you’re not sure what to write you can start with the message I used above, but change it to say something like:

"I'm working on growing my network on LinkedIn and see you're at <<name of the company.>> I’m interested in learning more about the company. I also know you're probably very busy so no worries if you don't have time to respond."

Be patient

Not everyone is on LinkedIn all day, every day. It may take them a few days or even weeks to respond.

In the meantime, keep working through the list of people in your search results. When you run out of people to connect or re-connect with, then run the search again with a different company from your target list.

Sometimes it feels like you are doing all this work and nothing is happening. Then, all of a sudden, everyone replies at once. That’s a good problem to have.

Going back to the beginning of this week’s issue, why does this approach help you overcome some of the typical mistakes on LinkedIn?

Show up consistently - You are getting proactive on LinkedIn. If you do a small amount of connecting each day, you’ll have your network foundation in place when you need it.
Engage with other people's content - This will apply more when we talk about Following next week, but for now, you are engaging with people’s profiles and connecting with them.
Have a plan for making new connections - You are being strategic with your connecting because you are finding people at your target companies. You are focused on who you connect with.
Make it "safe" for others to start a conversation with you - You are only asking people for their opinions about the company they work at. You aren’t asking them to take your resume and give it to a recruiter or if they have a job for you. You aren’t asking them for their time. You are also giving them an out by saying you know they are busy. This makes them more likely to help you when you acknowledge they are busy and they can opt out if they choose.