How to Increase Connections on LinkedIn

How to Increase Connections on LinkedIn

LinkedIn, the world’s largest business social networking service (SNS), requires the exchange of connection requests in order to increase contacts. However, you want to actively increase your connections, but you don’t know the specific method. Also, there may be times when you get lost in the appropriate response when you receive a connection request.

In this article, How to Increase Connections on LinkedIn. We’ll show you how to overcome those headaches and increase connections with connection requests on LinkedIn.

What are LinkedIn connections? How is it different from followers

There are two ways to connect with contacts on LinkedIn: “connect” and “follow”. Let’s check the difference between these two.

Connections are like “friends” on Facebook. You need to send a connection request to the person you want to connect with and have them approve it. Once your request is approved, you become the 1st contact and can exchange messages. Following is the same as following on Twitter, posts of the person you followed will be displayed on the timeline.

In order to show the depth of the relationship with you on LinkedIn, 1 to 3 are displayed on the other person’s profile. The first order is the direct contact, the second order is the contact of the contact, and the third order is the contact. In addition, the connection automatically doubles as a follow. Connect and follow are not separate things, they are partially linked. In addition, it is also possible to cancel the following while maintaining the connection. Also, even if you unfollow, the other person will not be notified. In terms of Twitter, it is similar to following each other and muting the other party.

You want to keep connected, but you may be worried about your contacts posting frequently and appearing on your timeline over and over again. In that case, it might be a good idea to unfollow them and make them connections only. In other words, there are three patterns of how to connect on LinkedIn.

Among these three combinations of contact and follow, the most desirable relationship depends on the relationship with the person. Some people think that being followed is enough and that you don’t necessarily need to request a connection.

Still, the recommended connection pattern is mutual, that is, the basic form of contact. Increasing the number of users with this relationship has many benefits for expanding your network and for changing jobs. Now let’s check the benefits below.

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The Benefits of Increasing Your LinkedIn Connections

Proactively building connections on LinkedIn has the following key benefits:

• Connection requests are meant to be approved
• Make your posts more visible on your timeline
• Positive for a career change

Let’s check the individual benefits.

• Connection requests are meant to be approved

The more contacts you have, the more likely it will be accepted when you send a connection request to someone you want to connect with, here is an example.

Suppose you are interested in and want to connect with user X, whom you have not met yet. If you apply for a connection to Mr. X, the number of common connections will be a point. Naturally, the number of common connections is greatly influenced by the number of contacts in the first place.

And it’s obvious who is more likely to approve your connection request, whether you have a few common connections (say, 0-3 people) or a lot (say, 10-20 people). If you have a lot of common connections, you can expect to be approved first. However, if it is small, it is subtle, and there is a good chance that it will be passed if the other party is not interested.

• Make your posts more visible on your timeline

One thing to keep in mind about the LikedIn Algorithm is that your posts may not reach all of your followers. The algorithm works to show popular posts in the main on the timeline. If the posts have similar content, there is an aspect that posts with more reactions are more likely to be displayed. So people with more connections will be more likely to see posts on their timelines.

The more connections you have, the more likes and comments you will get on your posts, and the higher priority those posts will receive. The quality of posts is also important for SNS (Social Networking Services), but it is a place where the “number” of reactions that can be clearly understood rather than the quality matters.

But LinkedIn isn’t just about follower count like Twitter is. They have a great algorithm that will deliver your posts to contacts who have some kind of affinity with you, such as people with similar careers or similar orientations. With that in mind, having a large number of connections is definitely a strong covering fire in order to make the most of the algorithm.

It’s putting the cart before the horse to mechanically pursue only numbers, but aiming for numbers with an appropriate sense of volume will work positively in the use of LinkedIn.

• Positive for a career change

For those who use LinkedIn for job hunting, increasing connections will definitely increase the chances of a successful job change. For example, the more contacts you have, the more users will give you skill approvals, called “skill endorsements,” for skills on your profile.

That alone makes it an easy factor to attract the interest of recruiters (change agents and headhunters) and hiring managers. Also, the recruiter of the company you are specifically approaching will definitely check your profile. Whether there are many or few skill endorsements should have some effect on the evaluation from the other party.

For the same reason, the more positive reactions your activity receives, the better. You are more likely to be scouted and more likely to be liked by recruiters at companies you are approaching. Due to the background of such a system LinkedIn, increasing connections is a total positive for job change activities.

5 tips to increase your LinkedIn connections

Here are five main tips for increasing your LinkedIn connections:

• Send to people you have a common connection with
• 　Send to users with “#connection request welcome”
• 　Send requests steadily up to the limit
• 　Linking with other SNSs such as Twitter
• 　Send to active users

Let’s take a look at each trick.

• Send to people you have a common connection with

As mentioned in the benefits section, the more connections you have in common, the more likely your connection request will be approved. In the early stages, you can increase the number of connections by making connection requests with that in mind.

• Send to users with “#connection request welcome”

If you send a connection request to a user whose headline or profile says “#connection request welcome” or “#connection request welcome”, it will basically not be refused.

If you search for “connection application” or “connection application” on LinkedIn’s search function, you can quickly find the target user. Once you have a certain number of contacts, you won’t need it, but if you’re just starting out on LinkedIn, it’s a great way to build up your contact population quickly.

• Send requests steadily up to the limit

There is a limit of 3,000 requests for connection requests. Therefore, you need to be careful about whom you send requests to connect with. First, clarify in yourself who you want to connect with and for what purpose, such as people who are interested in your career, people whose posts are wonderful, people you want to get involved with in business and set your priorities. Although it is steady work, it is important to apply it on your own day-by-day. Many people feel happy when they receive a connection request, but they are slow to send it themselves. Therefore, when you send a connection request from yourself, the other person is often pleased, and you can smoothly increase the number of connections.

In addition, when you send a connection request, you may be wondering whether it is better to attach a message. Some users may find it annoying that they have to reply to the attached message. On the other hand, some users feel that having a message makes a better impression. In conclusion, it is not necessary to decide on one or the other, as the feeling will be different depending on the recipient. It would be nice to imagine which one would be preferred from the image of the person you are sending it to.

• Linking with other SNSs such as Twitter

If you want to quickly increase the number of connections, it is effective to link with other SNS, especially Twitter. Twitter has a high diffusion power, so if you use it well, you can get a lot of requests to connect.

• Send to active users

A user’s activity is also important for getting approval for connection requests. There are also recommendations for people who send connection requests, but in fact, there are many people who are not active. Even if you send a connection request to such a user, there is a high risk that it will go unnoticed and be wasted because they will not login in the first place.

Now let’s talk about how to find active users. The first step is to look at the “Activity” section of the user’s profile. If you don’t see anything, you haven’t posted, commented, or liked in the last 90 days, you’re inactive. Avoid those users and choose users with a wide variety of activities. Another way is to send a connection request to a secondary (or tertiary) contact who likes your post. There may not be many cases like that, but the chances of it being approved are extremely high because you are expressing positive feelings about your post.

The next method is to send a connection request to a secondary contact that appears in your feed. Algorithms are likely to show you something related or in common. Also, since you can see the content of the post, it will be easier for you to determine whether the user is worth connecting with. Finally, there is the option of following your profile browsing history. By the time someone looks at someone else’s profile, they’ll definitely be active, have some interest in you, and will probably approve your connection request. However, this feature is exclusive to premium accounts.

How to Properly Respond to Connection Requests

So far, we’ve talked about sending connection requests yourself. Here are some tips on how to respond appropriately when you receive a connection request.

• Connection requests are basically accepted

If you receive a connection request, you can basically accept it unless you look at the user’s profile and activity and you are not very suspicious. LinkedIn is a great way to expand your network, even if you don’t know each other directly. Make sure to approve connection requests, especially from corporate recruiters and recruiters. And build relationships that lead to business and career change.

• When to return a message

When you’re new to LinkedIn, it can be tempting to reply to every message that accompanies a connection request. But in reality, you probably don’t need to worry about that. Basically, it is OK to reply only if you approve the connection request or if it is meaningful to you.

It will be the following four.

• General user
• corporate recruiter
• Recruiter
• job seeker

When it comes to genuine connection requests from general users, it’s a pleasure, so let’s reply. Even if it is troublesome, it is better to return it as etiquette. When it comes to corporate recruiters, we only reach out to a small group of people who we see as a good fit for our culture and who have the skills we’re looking for. Aside from what you think of the company, write a proper reply to face it sincerely.

Similarly, when it comes to recruiters, there are cases where there is a company that anticipates your skills and wants to introduce you. Write your reply properly. However, recruiters may not be as enthusiastic about scouting you as corporate recruiters. In many cases, the recruiter simply wants to increase the number of job seekers that can be recruited. There are times when you can figure it out, and times when you don’t know, so let’s reply concisely. Of course, if it’s a proper scout with a specific JD (job description: content of the job offer), it’s appropriate to take it seriously and reply.

Messages from job seekers are a little different from others. It often means a direct negotiation from a person looking for a job to see if they can work at your company. You will see this message a lot, especially if you are in the human resources department. Whether or not we should consult on this matter is on a case-by-case basis. However, even if you refuse, there is a background of work, so let’s send a proper reply first.

• If you can ignore the message

There are many cases where the message is the user’s own service mediation, survey request, event-related, advertisement, etc. You can safely ignore these in general. Service mediation includes sales of insurance and real estate, and solicitation of investment. You can reply if you’re really interested, but you shouldn’t pay too much attention to it.

A survey request is a case where a survey company requests a hearing about your occupation or area of ​​expertise that you have published on your profile. There is a risk that information about your current job may be leaked to competitors, so it would be wise not to respond to people who work for a company rather than freelancers or self-employed people. In relation to events, there are many cases where we are asked to participate in seminars, exchange meetings, and industry events that we want to attract customers and to provide opinions and impressions. You can reply if you are interested, but be careful as it may be an unhealthy solicitation.

Advertising is the general promotion of goods and services. You can leave it alone, thinking that it is the same as something that normally comes to a private email address. As for these, you can basically ignore them unless there is a great advantage. Also, some people misunderstand the purpose of LinkedIn and seek personal, not business, interactions. In that case, it’s wise not to get involved.

• How to identify users to actively connect with

Check profiles and activities as a way to identify users that you should actively connect with, rather than increasing your population. Here you may find that your profile is thin, has no public photos, or has little activity. If so, don’t think you need to actively connect.

Firstly, they should be active users, and secondly, they should not be self-righteous. If you are an active but self-righteous person, there are cases where the connection itself will lower your impression. Take a good look at whether the activity is based on common sense, sensible ways of thinking, and values, and decide whether it is positively connected.

Summary

Having more connections on LinkedIn has many benefits. It is easy to get approval for requests, easy to post on the timeline, and it will be a plus for job hunting.

There are tricks to increasing your connections. In addition to selecting users with many common connections, it is possible to increase connections relatively smoothly by selecting active users who are linked with Twitter. If you’re new to LinkedIn, and you don’t have idea how to Increase Connections on LinkedIn, I encourage you to use the methods I’ve introduced here to increase your connections and reap the benefits.