4 Effective Ways to Increase Your Connections on LinkedIn

A client of mine recently asked me a great question: What can we do with our LinkedIn profiles to attract a more specific flow of connections?

In other words, how can I increase my connections on LinkedIn?

It’s a great question because LinkedIn isn’t set up like Twitter or Facebook. You can’t increase your LinkedIn connections with an automated process or buy a tool that will grow your followers overnight.

And even if you could, it wouldn’t be the best strategy. Those connections would most likely not be in the target industries or regions that you want. And when it comes to social media strategy, the right connections on LinkedIn means everything.

Instead, LinkedIn is a professional social network. Connections are earned, not automated. In fact, if too many people click “don’t know this person” on an invitation you send, your profile can be blocked from sending out invitations.

TLDR: There isn’t a “quick fix”, but there are ways to genuinely increase your LinkedIn connections:

Personalize Every Invitation Message

When you send out a connection request, LinkedIn has the generic message “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” already filled in the invite message box.

But you can change this and make it more personal. Remind the person how you know each other. Did you meet at a conference? In a LinkedIn group? On social media? Mention it in the message and briefly explain why you want to connect. Your message should get to the point quickly.

By making the message personal, you can increase the chance of that person accepting the connection on LinkedIn.

Sharpen Your Profile Headline

LinkedIn sets your current employment position as your default headline, but you can customize it to make your profile more searchable. Changing your personal headline does not erase your current position from your profile. Use key phrases that connections you want would use to search for people in the LinkedIn search box.

If someone views your profile from a search like this, send an invite with a personal message thanking the person for checking out your professional LinkedIn profile and that you’d like to connect.

Include Your LinkedIn URL in Your Email Signature

Listing your social media links in your email signature is an invitation to each person you email that you want to connect. Not only will this increase the view count of your profile, but it will also make it easier for your real-life connections to find you on LinkedIn and invite you to connect.

Join LinkedIn Groups (and Participate!)

Find (and join) groups on LinkedIn that are related to your professional interests. These groups are designed not to “sell” your business or services, but to have industry conversation with likeminded individuals.

Participate in the conversations that happen within the feed of the group pages or start conversations in the group. Then, once your face has been seen on the group page a few times, send out invites to group members with personalized invitation messages that you’ve “met” them in this LinkedIn group and want to connect.

So, how can you start increasing your connections on LinkedIn? By connecting with me, of course! Send me a LinkedIn invite.

How are you increasing your connections on LinkedIn? Share your strategies below.