Make Networking Easier With These 6 LinkedIn Tips

Make Networking Easier With These 6 LinkedIn Tips LinkedIn is a business-oriented online space that has been designed to encourage professional networking with one’s clients, associates, and colleagues. Although this is the primary use of LinkedIn, it has attributed to the growth of many users in areas of personal, professional, and organizational development. LinkedIn enables professional networking through its various features, allowing users to connect with each other, build networks, join groups, and as a result help with their professional development. Listed below, are a couple of ways in which one can network resourcefully, using LinkedIn as a medium. 1) LinkedIn Connected App Let’s begin by understanding how the LinkedIn Connected App works. The Connected App basically displays your ordinary desktop notifications in the form of highlights via this app. Let’s say a connection of yours switched jobs or has his work-anniversary coming up soon, the app will notify you, enabling you to choose to send a congratulatory message. Via this highlight, you can also view connections you have in common with the user, their details (including their profile picture.) The connected app makes it easier to connect with people in an efficient manner, without having to go through a lot of pains to stay connected to someone. This way, you’ll find it easier to stay connected to multiple users, while easily maintaining these connections and networks formed on LinkedIn. Apart from network updates, the app also lets you browse through potential connections, and send them an invite to add them to your network. Hence, it acts as a highly useful tool to form and maintain connections, enabling you to network effortlessly. 2) Being A Part Of The Right Kind Of Groups In LinkedIn, it is very important to be a part of groups that are best suited for you. There are more than a million groups on LinkedIn, hence searching for one that will potentially help you build a significant network is very important. The aim is to find professionals with similar interests and goals. The best place to search for groups to be a part of is the Discover tab. Here, you can search for specific keywords related to the kind of groups you want to join. These keywords could be related to your job title, field of work, interests, and so on. This helps in narrowing down a list of groups you could be a part of, helping you gain a wider network in the process. 3) Don’t Forget To Mention A Call-To-Action One must never underestimate the importance of a good call to action. It not only showcases you as a hands-on individual, but also acts as an open invitation for the viewer to connect with you. The call to action is generally placed at the end of a summary. A reader generally goes through your summary to have a quick read about your qualifications and experience, and on the basis of that decides whether or not to further contact you. If at the end of a well-written summary there is no call to action, the reader has no way to contact you, making you miss out on a potential networking opportunity. To further impress the reader, make sure your call to action is catchy and unconventional. An example of the same would be: Need a quick fix for your problems? Contact me at abc@xyz.com 4) Personalization of Connection Requests It is safe to say that not many people are a fan of being sent messages that are generalized and not specifically meant for you. This doesn’t just restrict to just LinkedIn messages, but messages in general. Hence, always make sure that whenever you’re sending out a connection request to a professional, personalize it in a way that upon reading your message, they know it is a unique message that has only been sent to them. You are given 300 characters to utilize, so make best use of it. Mentioning how you know the other person, how you’ve admired their work, and talking about how you’ve been hoping to connect to them for a while. Adding a personal touch to these messages will leave them with no choice but to accept your connection request. An example for a personalized connection request could be as follows: Hey Xyz, I’ve been meaning to connect with you ever since I saw your detailed research report on Abc project. I’ve heard great things about your paper on xyz, and hope to someday work alongside on a project. Until then! Best regards, Abc   5) Open Profile Feature The open profile feature, although only available for premium users, is of great use if you’re looking to connect to people beyond first degree connections. On LinkedIn, an individual can only either send messages to members of the groups they’re a part of, or to first degree connections. The open profile feature allows the user to connect with any other LinkedIn user, and at the same time allows any other user to connect to you, even if they don’t have a premium account. This not only broadens up the range of connections you’ll be able to make, but also helps in inviting professionals and users with similar interests to connect with you. 6) Get Found In LinkedIn Search With The Right Keywords Having an updated profile, although necessary, is of no use if there is no way of finding it in the LinkedIn search box. Gaining visibility for your LinkedIn profile is of utmost importance In order to be found by prospective professionals, recruiters etc. Using the right keywords in your profile, not only helps you gain visibility for your profile, but also opens up doors for networking opportunities. Adding specific keywords to your headline, job title, and certifications and so on, will considerably increase your chances of being found on LinkedIn. This will not only improve the quality of your profile with the inclusion of keyword-specific information, but also invite potential professionals to connect with. Now that you’ve gone through a list of ways in which you can network more efficiently through LinkedIn, you can go on and apply these pointers to your profile to see the difference for yourself! If you want to find out more about how to use LinkedIn in a way that could be beneficial to you, check out our extensive blog Top 33 LinkedIn Profile Tips for Job Seekers in 2017”. Author Bio: Abhyank Srinet holds a Masters in Management degree from ESCP Europe has an engineering degree with a specialization in Instrumentation Control. His interest in the digital landscape motivated him to create an online start up for Masters in Management application consulting (MiM-Essay.com), focused on spreading quality information about the MiM degree performing application consulting services for clients. He is the chief consultant of the company and takes care of Business Development and Digital Marketing side of the company. He is very passionate about writing and marketing.