It’s not difficult to make good connections on LinkedIn, you just need to take the time to get everything set up correctly. Here are 5 things to do to make sure you make good connections on LinkedIn.
Have a good profile picture
Make sure your profile has a good, professional profile picture. That means, no gym selfies unless you’re a PT or work in a gym. No cartoons, unless you’re a cartoonist, and no pictures of you with your significant other, kids, pets etc. Just a head and shoulders shot of you on a plain background. It’s worthwhile to get something done professionally.
Customise your connection requests
Don’t just send the default connection message when you’re asking someone to connect. Customise it to let the other person know why you want to connect and what you have to offer them. Remember, it’s a two-way relationship. If you’re just connecting to build your numbers, say so. That allows people who connect strategically to make a considered decision whether to accept or not. It may also result in connections who also like to build their numbers introducing you to other like-minded people.
Fill out your profile
LinkedIn offers a lot of scope for informing people about your skills, work history and professional interests. Take the time to fill out all sections of your profile to create the best chance of making better connections. The more information you have, the easier it will be for people to see if you’re someone that they want to connect with. It also means you’re more likely to come up in searches related to your interests.
Get recommendations
While I don’t have a lot of faith in the endorsement system, recommendations are another thing altogether. Request recommendations from past and current clients to offer people looking to hire or employ you an idea of where you excel and what are your greatest skills.
Engage with others
Check out your newsfeed regularly and like, comment and share posts that resonate with you, offer an interesting viewpoint or contain information you think will be useful to your contacts. The more you interact with your contacts the more they’ll like, comment and share your work. Make sure that your comments add something to the conversation, even if it’s a thank you for publishing this. Comments that are interesting and start conversations will lead to better engagement and better connections.
Spending a bit of time getting your LinkedIn presence right, then regularly maintaining it will help you get more interaction. The more interaction you have, the easier it will be to make good connections on LinkedIn.
If you’d like some more ideas, check out my previous posts on LinkedIn
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