Jon Samsel

Here is an amazing statistic for you to digest: LinkedIn has over 34 million members in over 200 countries and territories around the world. In fact, a new member joins LinkedIn every second of every day! If you’ve ever wondered how to harness the power of Linkedin to grow your social sphere, land a job, promote your company, whatever—then this article might provide you with a few actionable ideas to propel you forward.

Here are seven simple ways to leverage LinkedIn to expand your social network:

1. Create a robust profile. It’s really important to take the time to make your LinkedIn profile as detailed as possible. Yeah, it’s a hassle, especially since you can’t simply upload your resume and pre-populate LinkedIn’s forms with the click of the mouse. But once you fill everything out, your profile can act as a 24/7 beacon that attracts other LinkedIn users to you. For example, by listing the fraternity you were a member of in college or by including the sport you played, skills you’ve acquired, or awards you’ve won—you increase your odds that a person browsing your profile with find a common interest. This, in turn, will make it easier for them to reach out to you because now the two of you have a common frame of reference from which to start a dialog.

Updating your Reading List is another way you can round out your profile (although this is officially a LinkedIn tool or application (more on this later). This tool is easy to use and it’s one more way for people to get to know you through the books you enjoy and recommend.

Whenever I am on LinkedIn looking for people to connect with, I love it when I find a common bond or interest with someone I don’t yet know. I often include this tidbit of information in my letter of introduction to them. This method has been successful for me 90% of the time.

2. Share the now. Why not describe what you are working on right now, or what you are looking for—LinkedIn makes this easy to do. Describe the type of project you are toiling away at. Or the type of customer you hope to land next. Or even the ideal job you are looking for. Simply update the LinkedIn profile tool that asks, ‘What are you working on?’ Update this as often as often as possible. Think of this feature as a mini-Twitter on LinkedIn (only not nearly as robust and powerful).

This is an easy profile update feature that serves two important purposes:

• It informs your network what you are doing right now. If what you are doing is of interest to them, you are likely to hear from them right away. People generally know this is the closest thing to a real-time content post you will see on linked in, and people often chime in on what you have to say since it feels like they are responding to what you’ve posted. Try it and see. Of course, it helps if you have enough people in your network to begin with!

• LinkedIn posts the ‘what you’re working on now’ post in their status update feed, which functions as a newsfeed and populates this information across your existing network—increasing the odds that someone will notice what you are doing and engage a dialog with you.

3. Add connections. This is where LinkedIn has made ‘connecting your network’ easy. You have a choice of inviting contacts one by one, importing contacts from Microsoft Outlook or from your webmail accounts such as Gmail or Yahoo Mail, or even connect with past or present colleagues/classmate by viewing a list of individuals already using LinkedIn. This single connectivity feature will help jumpstart your LinkedIn connections like no other.

4. Join a group. Better yet, join lots of groups that are of interest to you. You may not get accepted into all of the groups you solicit, but try anyway (many groups require that you have a background related to the group’s charter…again a robust profile listing listing all your experience will aid you here). Joining a group is free and there is nothing to lose by participating. I have found that by becoming a member of a group, you immediately increase your odds of meeting people with common interests. And by reading and engaging in the group’s discussions, you can learn about the people, issues and subjects that are of interest to participants.

5. Offer something of value/Give of yourself. Help someone in a group by answering a question or contributing to a discussion topic. Not only does this show good will on your part, but this act of giving has a positive ripple effect on your LinkedIn network that may surprise you. For example, yesterday I answered a question posted by a member of the LinkEds & writers group who inquired about getting a literary agent. I provided some brief advice, plus included a link to a few articles on my blog that were related to the topic. From this simple act of helping this one LinkedIn user, here is the impact I have been able to measure so far (in a single day, mind you):

• 3 new LinkedIn connections
• 1 invitation to join a related group by the host
• 17 visits to my blog
• 2 favorable blog comments left by satisfied readers
• 1blog comment asking if I’d be interested in being interview for a new non-fiction book being written by an writer in the UK
• 2 new links to by blog
• 3 Delicious referrals to my blog
• 4 Twitter referrals to my blog
• 2 StumbleUpon referrals to my blog
• 1 kind message from an editor at a major national magazine thanking me for ‘pointing the group to these helpful resources’

Not too shabby considering I only answered a single question for a single person on LinkedIn. Multiply this by 10 times and you can quickly see how the act of giving can have a huge impact on your social networking goals.

6. Include your contact info. I am continually surprised by the number of LinkedIn users do not include their contact information for all to see (phone #, email address, website URL, blog link—include all or a cobination of contact methods, whatever you are comfortable posting). LinkedIn has become this generation’s Rolodex. It’s not enough to simply post you profile. You need to make it easy for people to get in touch with you.

For example, by not including your email address in plain view on your profile page, it may be hard for someone to add you to their network (LinkedIn will ask how this person knows you and if they select ‘other’ they will be prompted to submit your email address—if they don’t have it, the request can be denied). By including a link to your blog or company website, a LinkedIn user can visit your site at a later date and time when it’s most convenient to them.

7. Add an application (or two). LinkedIn has teamed up with premier companies to embed their applications into your profile. Connect your Wordpress blog, collaborate with Huddle workspaces, display your Slideshare presentations, and even display your current location, upcoming trips and travel stats via TripIt. Getting started is pretty simple. You’ll be able to install and use your new applications in only a few seconds.

Now that you’ve read all about expanding your LinkedIn social network by utilizing some simple pointers, try them out for yourself. I am confident that within a few days or weeks, you’ll start seeing results.

Keep in mind that results are subjective. Some people just want to connect with old friends and colleagues on LinkedIn and they are not trying to grow a large social network. Others are trying to utilize LinkedIn to promote their company/blog, land a new job, or generate new clients. And then there are others who aspire to become a LinkedIn Open Networker (LION) with 2500+ connections.

Whatever your ultimate goal, keep in mind that as your LinkedIn network grows, you may experience ancillary benefits too, such as increase visits to your blog, business partnership opportunities, guest speaking offers, ReTweets, inquiries from recruiters, a ‘hello’ email from a prior romantic interest, and more. You’ll never know what’s possible until you try.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 at 5:31 am and is filed under LinkedIn, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.