Want to quickly grow your LinkedIn audience? Listen to LinkedIn guru Jennifer Darling’s “secret tips” for connecting with new contacts (sans awkwardness) and taking advantage of that “new connection” bump:
When people ask us about social media marketing, they often assume they can build a significant audience over the course of weeks or months – rather than years. And while we recommend you set realistic goals for growing you LinkedIn audience, Jennifer’s got a couple tips which will help you get to 100+ connections faster.
“When you’re out at a networking event, turn on the Bluetooth on your smartphone and then go to the LinkedIn app,” says Jennifer. “If you click on the People button … this option called Find Nearby comes up. If you click Find Nearby, your Bluetooth starts to pull in all of the people around you who are also on LinkedIn and have their Bluetooth on.”
So if you’re at an event and want to quickly connect with the people around you, log in to the LinkedIn app and use the Find Nearby option! But then, make sure to note the new people you connected with and follow up with a personalized message.
“I like to be able to go back through my messages and remember where I met people,” says Jennifer. “So at the end of the day, go back and write your new connections a note saying where you met them and that you enjoyed connecting with them. That way, six months down the road, you can do a quick search through your messages and remember where you met people.”
Don’t Be Afraid to Double Back for New Connections
That tip is great for connecting with people who leave their Bluetooth on, but how do you connect with less tech-saavy contacts? Jennifer recommends saving the business cards you acquire at meetings, corporate, and community events, and then using those to track people down on LinkedIn afterward.
“And you know what’s cool about that?” says Jennifer. “Whenever you connect with someone on LinkedIn, you get a bump in their newsfeed. So as long as you’re maintaining a great profile and adding content, you’re going to get a bump in people’s newsfeeds after you connect with them.”
That bump applies to anyone you add on LinkedIn, so don’t be afraid to track down former or current clients and connect with them as well. You might think you already know those people and have a great relationship with them, so you won’t benefit from adding them on LinkedIn, too. But adding your existing clients as new connections will keep you top-of-mind a little longer.
“But don’t go selling those people right off the bat!” says Jennifer. “No one wants to be sold the first time they talk to somebody. That’ll get you immediately cut from their LinkedIn network.”
Jennifer also recommends connecting with anyone who likes, shares, or comments on your LinkedIn content, as they’re likely to continue interacting with you (and share other people’s engaging content) in the future.
If you want to know everything Jennifer knows about LinkedIn, be sure to check out our full, 40-minute interview with her over at our YouTube channel. We’d like to thank Jennifer again for taking the time to chat with us; we know we’re going to level up our LinkedIn game thanks to her advice!
