Developing your professional LinkedIn network in 12 steps

At present, more than 722 million people have registered on LinkedIn (to read: the latest LinkedIn figures ).
Even if a large number of subscribers are not active users, with its network operation, LinkedIn has become a first choice platform for developing its professional brand and business relationships on the internet .
It is therefore opportune to know how LinkedIn works for power, if applicable, develop your own network .
Your main goal is not to sell your products, but to sell yourself, through marketing yourself.
Once you understand this, it is interesting to ask yourself the question: “ how to develop my network on LinkedIn ? “.

Today, there are several techniques and tips, sometimes overlooked or unknown to the general public, that will allow you to significantly expand your network of contacts and extend your level of influence on LinkedIn.

Developing your professional LinkedIn network: The video

1. Be findable on LinkedIn

You may have Barack Obama’s LinkedIn profile, but if no one sees it, what’s the point?
Have you thought about publicize your LinkedIn profile ? This trick might sound like a boat, and yet!
Many leaders and talents make the wrong mistake configure LinkedIn privacy settings and most of the information published is only accessible to their already existing network.

Put as much information as possible in public: summary, experiences, professional background, etc. A good way to expand your network is to post your public profile to have a better chance of being found on search engines.

2. Know your LinkedIn target

On your LinkedIn account , you will find professionals from different sectors of activity: economy, politics, communication, science, marketing, etc.
In total, 16 million French people are registered on LinkedIn. Among this mass of people, it is important to define who will be your target.
If you work in finance, chances are you would prefer to expand your network with professionals in economics and finance rather than with a manufacturer of wooden furniture.
You must adapt your speech to the person behind the screen .
You won’t talk to an executive like you would talk to a construction worker. The lexical field used is not the same.
If this is clear to you, then be present on LinkedIn can become a powerful lever for communicating about your projects, working and manage your e-reputation , recruit new employees, etc.

3. Knowing how to make people want

Once you are decided to expand your Linkedin network and that you have determined your target, there remains the longest job: knowing how to sell yourself.
Tell yourself that your LinkedIn profile will be visited by a large number of people and among them: possible collaborators, potential clients or employers.

Your LinkedIn profile is your showcase, don’t neglect form or content.

Yannick BOUISSIERE

To make these people want to go further in their knowledge of you, you must fill your summary as much as possible by trying to work on your storytelling .
Storytelling is an original, yet powerful marketing tool that allows others to identify with your story and connect them emotionally to you. This can make your reader “dig deeper” considerably.

For inspiration, you can take a look at these examples of elevator pitches .
Provide as much detail as possible about your expertise and experiences and do not hesitate to ask your former employers or colleagues to recommend you on the social network .
This way, you can be sure that your profile will reflect a positive and professional image of you.

4. Know who viewed your LinkedIn professional profile

Unlike other social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn offers its users the possibility of knowing the people who have visited their profile .
The section “Views of your profile” is therefore opportune if you wish see who has viewed your LinkedIn profile and thus contact them to expand your network.
Why ? Because it will be easier to get in touch with someone who has previously visited your profile.
Do not hesitate to take advantage of their visit to find common points and interests to create contact.

5. Share information

Sharing relevant and interesting information indicates that you are active on LinkedIn.
Like Facebook, LinkedIn allows you to share and relay multimedia content in a way that makes your profile more dynamic. You can post videos on LinkedIn , write and publish LinkedIn articles , post, interact …

However, it is best not to automatically relay articles. It is appreciated to add a personal supplement such as a professional quote, a point of view or an opinion on the treated subject.

To solicit engagement and conversation, feel free to mention (using an @) anyone who might like your content.
The people mentioned have the advantage of immediately receiving a notification redirecting to your content. A good way to grow your LinkedIn network and encourage engagement .
Avoid sharing or posting information that has nothing to do with your professional activity or your know-how. It wastes your time and is counterproductive in addition to distorting your professional brand.

Finally, avoid putting external links so as not to be blacklisted by the LinkedIn algorithm !

6. Create articles on LinkedIn

Sharing and relaying information is good. But creating your own content is even better.
Since November 1, 2015 in France, LinkedIn has offered its users the possibility of using the platform as a mini “blog” by allowing you to create multimedia content articles and publish them.
Producing information yourself means showing that you take your professional career to heart, that you invest yourself in LinkedIn and that you enjoy sharing content with others, ideally to help them advance in their activity and their business.
If you specialize in marketing, you can, as an example, write an article that introduces the new ways to market in 2018.
This helps you demonstrate your expertise and enhance your analytical skills on a given topic.
Put them in public and people will be able to “like” and / or comment on them. The more regular you have, the stronger the engagement, the more likely your LinkedIn network will be to grow.

To read: how to post an article on LinkedIn .

7. Be a member of one or more Linkedin groups

Like Facebook, LinkedIn now gives you the option of becoming a member of a group or creating one.
This feature is interesting because it allows you to use the group directory or the search engine to find groups that relate to your sector of activity and thus get in touch with other members of the group by: participating in discussions, sharing information, posting your own content with a link to your profile, offering relevant responses to other people’s posts, etc.
This allows you to better target your networking opportunities.
You can even offer to become an administrator of existing groups.
The group is a great opportunity to position yourself as a leading expert in your sector and to make new relationships with you. in this way.

8. Meet people from your Linkedin network

Get out of online to meet people from your Linkedin network in real life!
Many people, especially among the self-employed, are content to do things in their own corner, without asking anyone for anything. They are content to expand their network virtually, but are at a standstill when it comes to real life.
You must, on the contrary, leave your home. Do not hesitate to take the initiative and suggest to your LinkedIn contacts to discuss a common theme over a coffee or to participate in events or seminars organized by one of your contacts.

Keep in mind that other professionals also want to develop their own network and go to event activities to make themselves known, to talk about their activity with other people in the sector, to give their business card, etc.
Meeting your contacts in real life around your common activity can be beneficial in solidifying your network and meeting influential people.
Having hundreds of contacts on LinkedIn is one thing, being able to meet them in real life is another, and yet essential to your career.

Be careful to work your elevator pitch presentation before the event;)

9. Send personalized Linkedin invitations

Trite, but too often overlooked, sending invitations to people we don’t know is not going well for most of us.
The goal is not to send invitations without being a minimum selective, but not to hesitate to do so when you have, for example, appreciated, with a certain regularity, the content proposed by a person.
You can, therefore, him propose an invitation specifying that you would like to discuss common points and interests in private .
To be legitimate to send invitations to people you don’t know beforehand, you have to be in a process where you show them a real interest without making them feel that you are in need.

To read : STOP! Stop Making Those LinkedIn ™ Prospecting Mistakes

10. Do not refuse invitations by default

Denying too many invitations is a common mistake made on LinkedIn.
We act on LinkedIn as on other social networks. While it’s common to decline invitations from people we don’t know on Facebook, on LinkedIn, it’s not a habit to be made, but a habit to be lost.
If you want to be able to invite people you don’t know, you must first start by not refusing.
Systematically refusing an unknown person is to risk missing out on several exchange opportunities, and why not, professional proposals.

If you’ve gotten into the habit of sharing information and creating content, chances are you won’t go unnoticed and people will want to invite you to continue the conversation privately or to mark their interest in you and what you post.
Being open, but selective, gives you a great opportunity to expand your professional network.

11. Gain consistency

Too many people register on LinkedIn, but have a “dead profile”. In other words, a profile that they do not maintain and which is totally inactive.
You are on LinkedIn to sell yourself, and what better way to show your presence as often as possible.
Having an active profile with regularity in publishing or updating content demonstrates your investment and your active approach to find a job on LinkedIn or develop your network.
It also helps to retain the people who follow you.
Remember that an inactive profile will not interest anyone, let alone employers.

12. Use the schools pages to find former students

Alumni, is a LinkedIn feature that allows you to reunite with your former promotion colleagues , alumni, alumni enrolled in your school or any other educational and higher education establishment.

This is done directly on the school’s LinkedIn page, in the “Former students” sub-menu.

To do this, you must of course have completed the “training” field in your profile.
By clicking on the name or the logo of the school, find your former classmates. This is another way to create new opportunities and expand your network.

Bonus: how to gain more than 24,000 people in your audience

As the size of the network matters and LinkedIn allows you to reach your network’s network with each post, I recommend that you add me on LinkedIn by click here . Adding me means being able to follow my news, but above all to increase the reach of your publications of more than 24,000 professionals and leaders. Indeed, when you go to post a content, it will appear on my news feed. If I like it, you will then access my network which will also see it on its home page. Short, adding influential people or people with a high number of subscribers is a winning recipe for increasing your reach.
So you know what you have to do? ! Click here : https://www.linkedin.com/in/yannick-bouissiere-expert-specialiste-linkdin/
Looking forward to reading your publications.

Developing your LinkedIn network: in conclusion

You will understand, there are several possibilities to expand your network of contacts on LinkedIn.
Of course, this requires a certain activity and regularity on the social network, but the latter is an extraordinary tool for meeting people, seeing former class or company colleagues, finding opportunities of all kinds, producing information. and share it with thousands of people.
However, it is possible for you to take certain actions today, do not go put off until the next day … Doing this is growing your influence and your network on LinkedIn, right now.

To learn more, I invite you to read this article which explains how to sell yourself through self-marketing .

Finally, if you haven’t already done so, you absolutely must download this guide which will help you have a LinkedIn profile 40 times more effective !