1°) How to connect with someone you don't know on LinkedIn?

1/ How to connect with someone on LinkedIn without connect button

When someone doesn't have a connect button straight away on their LinkedIn profile, it means that they prefer to be followed. If you want to connect with them though, simply click on the "More" button to make appear the connect one.

Where to click to find the connect button

2/ My 2 techniques to connect with someone on LinkedIn all the time

Technique 1: engage with the person before connecting

Before sending a LinkedIn invite, it's best to like and comment one or two posts of the person with want to connect with.

Most LinkedIn users, even the less active ones receive many LinkedIn invites these days. Because of the rise LinkedIn automation tools during the past few years, people will be less encline to accept your LinkedIn invite if you didn't interact with them at all.

This process will require you to:

• go to the LinkedIn profile

• go to the activity tab

• go to the post section

• engage with 1 or 2 posts

The process to engage with LinkedIn profile manually (time consuming)

This process can be daunting, that's why we simplified it with Breakcold to break the ice faster with your B2B contacts without opening many LinkedIn tabs per day.

When it comes to the LinkedIn invite itself, I'd advise you to not send a LinkedIn invite message unless you can come up with a non generic one. Otherwise, you'll just look like any other LinkedIn automation tool out there.

The process to engage LinkedIn profiles with a Social Selling software

Technique 2: not sending the LinkedIn DM straight away

Once your LinkedIn connection request has been accepted, do not reach out immediately if you really want to connect with people and not just adding them as "friends" on LinkedIn.

There are no points to connect with someone on LinkedIn if you just send a LinkedIn connection request without never actually contact the person and starting a conversation. But again if you rush it, you might look very spammy and will be categorized with the people using LinkedIn automation tools.

You want to wait a few days before sending a LinkedIn message. In the meantime, keep engaging with your new 1st degree connections and publish content so they will see it in their LinkedIn feed.

Avoid sending a LinkedIn connection message to reach out later the person

When it makes sense to reach out (for example you are inspired by a recent post they made) send a LinkedIn private message. The good thing about Breakcold is that you do it in a productive way because of how the social selling tool is designed.

3/ How to connect with someone on LinkedIn for a job

Ok, so I just saw this job offer on LinkedIn from trumpet, a buyer enablement software. How can we try to connect with the founder to get an interview for this Account Executive job? Here we are in the tech sales industry so you got to be original compare to a traditional job like being a Lawyer.

Phase 1 on networking for a job on LinkedIn: being creative

First, I would look at what the company is doing. They basically want to replace the use of PDF in business presentations to transform it into online landing pages that are hyper personalized for each type of company (it’s called a sales pod), sounds cool!

After reading that, my first reaction would be to sign up to trumpet’s website and use their free plan to make a creative resume using their own software.

In my resume, I would use specific words that they used in their job offer obviously.

A way to connect with someone on LinkedIn for a job from one place using Breakcold

Phase 2 on networking for a job on LinkedIn: reaching out the CEO

Once I’d be done with that, I would look at the recent posts of the Co-Founder & CEO, I would like one or two posts and comment some of them.

Finally, I would send a LinkedIn invite to the CEO and I’d add a note message that looks like this:

" Hey Rory 😃

Saw your job offer! I love trumpet, please find my reasons to apply in this sales pod created with trumpet

(link)

Talk you soon,Arnaud"

2°) How to connect with someone you know on LinkedIn?

1/ How to connect with someone on LinkedIn after withdrawing

When you remove in bulk people from your LinkedIn network or that you deleted too quickly some connections, you can delete by error some people.

The annoying scenario is often this one:

• you added a LinkedIn creator a long time ago that now reached his connections limit

• the B2B influencer is now more picky with its LinkedIn connections and doesn't accept many people

• you'll try to add them back in your network but they won't accept you (unless you had a strong bond with them in the past obviously)

This example can be problematic if you have a LinkedIn growth strategy that involves B2B influencers engaging back with your content times to times.

How To Connect With Someone on LinkedIn After Withdrawing example

To fix this, you can send a LinkedIn connection with the following connection request message:

"Hey Arnaud,

I deleted you by accident, would you mind add me back".

As you can see, this strategy worked a few times on many high profiles on the platform.

2/ How to connect with professors with a LinkedIn message

When it comes to connect with professors, it's super simple. I used to do it all the times when I was a trainee lawyer.

First, send them a LinkedIn invitation without a LinkedIn invite message. Why? Because the sole fact that you're a student in the University they teach is enough for them to accept you in most cases.

Same goes if you're a student in their class, it should be easy for them to remember you. If it was a professor you only had once, try to add them on LinkedIn during the pause of their class or just after they end their class. It will maximize the chances that you connect with them.

Example to connect with a SEO expert

Finally, if you want to send them a LinkedIn message, keep it super formal because in the academic world you never know it can impact your grades.

3/ How to connect with someone on LinkedIn after a networking event

The best way to connect with someone on LinkedIn after a networking event is to simply find the person and send the following LinkedIn invite message request:

Variation 1: if you met during the event" Hey X - we talked during the Y event :)"

Variation 2: if the person was speaker during the event" Hey X - loved your talk about Y during the event, keep pushing!".

As you can see, you don't have to come up with exceptional Linkedin connection messages. The most important is that you try to connect with these people as fast as possible after the end of the event otherwise they might not remember you anymore.

Example of someone who connected with me after I engaged with his LinkedIn posts

But if you want my opinion on it, the best way to connect with someone on LinkedIn for a networking event is during the event!

Here's a a technique I've done to connect with people during a networking event using LinkedIn. When you go to a B2B event, you usually have a pass that grant you accesss to the whole event.

What you can do is to build and print a custom networking card that contains a QR code on it that points to your LinkedIn profile. That way, every single time that you meet someone during the B2B event, you can ask the to connect on LinkedIn in no time by showing your LinkedIn QR code.

3°) Why can't I connect with someone on LinkedIn

There are many scenarios explaining why you can't connect with someone on LinkedIn.

Scenario 1: you haven't confirmed your LinkedIn account

You won't be able to connect with any LinkedIn profiles if you haven't confirmed your primary email address. Make sure that it didn't go to your spam folder.

Scenario 2: you're already connected to the LinkedIn member

If you have many LinkedIn connections, you can easily forget that you're connected to specific profiles. You can verify it by checking on the profile if it's 1st, 2nd or 3rd degree connection.

When the little 1st appears, it means you're already connected to the person

Scenario 3: you already sent the connection request

If you sent the connection requests already, it's obvious that you won't be able to connect. Your connection will be pending until the person accepts it. If you won't to revoke your LinkedIn invite, go to invitations and look at the sent ones to cancel the ones you desire.

The connect button won't appear if your invite is pending

Scenario 4: the people you want to connect with have 500+ connections

Once you reach more than 500 connections, LinkedIn will propose to people to follow you rather than to connect. To connect you'll have to click on the "More" button to send a LinkedIn invite.

Scenario 5: you opted for the follow button vs the connect one

In your privacy settings, you can opt to always get the follow button by default and not the connect one.

Scenario 6: the member has turned ON the LinkedIn Creator mode

Once a LinkedIn member has turned ON the creator mode, it means that they want to build a strong following on the platform rather than just connections.

The advantage of being followed is that it's a one way relationship. People can't send you private messages and you won't follow automatically what they like or comment on LinkedIn. It's much similar to Twitter in that sense.

4°) Other questions about connecting with someone on LinkedIn?

How many LinkedIn connections request can I send per day?

The weekly connection request limit is about a 100 people on LinkedIn. Depending on whether or not all your LinkedIn connection requests are accepted, you can have more or less than a 100.

Can I bypass the weekly connection request limit set by LinkedIn?

LinkedIn prospecting automation tools can get you banned though

If you have a strong Social Selling Index (SSI) score, you can send way more than 100 requests. My tip here would be to focus on having a high acceptance rate so you'll never be really limited.

I also noticed that paying LinkedIn Sales Navigator makes your account less restricted toward this limit.

You can bypass this weekly limit by using LinkedIn automation softwares. But if you use this kind of softwares, be prepared to potentially get your LinkedIn account banned from the platform for a couple of days or permanently.

What is the difference between connect vs follow on LinkedIn?

On LinkedIn, you can "follow" someone or "connect" with them. When you follow someone, it means that you will see her/his LinkedIn posts in your feed but you won't be able to send a LinkedIn message to that person.

Difference between LinkedIn connect vs LinkedIn follow

When you're connected with someone on LinkedIn, it means that you are a 1st degree connection so you can send the person a LinkedIn message without using LinkedIn InMails. By default, when you're connected to someone on LinkedIn you also follow them.

You can imagine a scenario where you're connected to someone but you don't follow them anymore. This could be convenient if you want to reach out some prospects on the platform without having your LinkedIn polluted with their news.