Introduction

How to network on LinkedIn? Like they say: "Your network is your net worth". Building a strong LinkedIn network is key for your LinkedIn growth and LinkedIn engagement.

All the networking tips here come from real life examples for you to get inspired in your LinkedIn networking strategy.

LinkedIn networking statistics

LinkedIn has more than 875 million users worldwide as of October 2022 and 2/3 of users are aged 25-34. It sounds like the perfect place to kickstart your professional career.

If you want to generate more leads and close more deals with the platform from Microsoft, you'll have to become an online networking machine. Ready? Let's go!

1°) LinkedIn Networking Tips to meet new people

The goal of LinkedIn networking is to meet new people to make business or partnerships with. It's also a great way to bond with peers to expand your knowledge. Here's a few networking tips to reach your goal.

LinkedIn Networking Tip 1: engage with people before reaching out

On LinkedIn, you can't send a private message to another LinkedIn user unless you're a first degree connection with that person. There are workarounds this barrier if you pay for LinkedIn premium through the use of LinkedIn InMails but it's definitely not the best way to network on LinkedIn, it's more for sales prospecting.

I use Breakcold to engage rapidly with my LinkedIn profiles

Therefore, you'll first need to have your LinkedIn connection request accepted if you want to network with someone on the platform.

Engaging with a LinkedIn profile before sending out LinkedIn invite will help you prove that you're not one of these hundreds of automated profiles who send tons of LinkedIn automated messages out of the blue.

Just liking and commenting the LinkedIn post/repost of the person you want to network with is enough to boost your chances of getting your LinkedIn invite accepted.

LinkedIn tip: if you want to expand your LinkedIn network, try to focus on your LinkedIn 2nd degree connections. 3rd degree connections usually will be less inclined to accept your LinkedIn invite if you don't have mutual connections.

LinkedIn Networking Tip 2: engage under B2B influencers posts

A good way to make yourself visible to network on LinkedIn is to leave comments on LinkedIn Creators (also called LinkedIn B2B influencers).

Why?

LinkedIn creators have a massive reach, meaning that their LinkedIn posts is distributed every day to at least 20,000 to 50,000 people in terms of impressions. They also receive about 30 to 200+ comments a day. It's basically leveraging viral LinkedIn posts every day at scal to network faster.

Let them likes and strong comments to be as visible as possible

If you leave comments under their posts, especially in the first hours that they published their content, some people will interact with your comments. Consequently, your LinkedIn comments will have more reach than your own LinkedIn posts. You'll get profile views and some people will add or follow you on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn tip: try to leave value comments (not just 1 sentence) under B2B influencers that operate in the same niche as you. For example if your niche is Social Selling, don't leave too many comments under Cold Calling influencers because it won't make sense.

LinkedIn Networking Tip 3: send casual LinkedIn messages

I think the biggest mistake that people make when they network on LinkedIn is that they keep the conversations way too formal.

Yes, it's a professional network but it's also a social network. And in a social environment you don't act like you're writing an email to the Dean of your University.

Send casual LinkedIn messages to network with people. This is an example of LinkedIn networking message I received for example:

Example of a LinkedIn message I sent to someone

LinkedIn Networking Tip 4: publish LinkedIn content at least once a day

If you publish content, even with a small LinkedIn network, you'll get impressions every day and if some of your 1st degree connections like and/or comment your posts, it will be pushed to their own audience. That way, you'll meet new people if they are interesting in what you are sharing.

LinkedIn tip: if you want a better reach and engagement, make sure to leave comments on other people's posts, it will boost massively your LinkedIn engagement.

I use FeedHive to share content online

LinkedIn Networking Tip 4: leverage LinkedIn groups

LinkedIn groups are a way to find people to network with.

To find a LinkedIn group, type the keyword that interests you in the LinkedIn search bar then click on the "Groups" button to see all the related groups to that keyword. Once you've joined a LinkedIn group, you can see all members of a given group and you can connect with them easily.

Groups are a good way to connect with 3rd degree connections because you can come up with a reason to add them in your LinkedIn network like "Hey, saw you're on the B2B sales Marketing group, want to connect?".

It's really basic but it just works.

Click "Show all" to see all the LinkedIn members of the group

LinkedIn Networking Tip 6: leverage LinkedIn events

Like LinkedIn groups, LinkedIn events are great places to find like-minded people to network with.

Again type some keywords in the LinkedIn search bar and filter the results to "Events". Once you attend an event, you can see all the attendees and you can reach out to them.

Leverage LinkedIn events to your advantage to expand your network

2°) My LinkedIn networking strategy (example)

Step 1: using a social selling software

The key component of my LinkedIn networking strategy is that I use a social selling software to speed up the B2B relationship building process.

This software (Breakcold) allows me to track LinkedIn profiles and aggregate all their LinkedIn posts along with their company ones into my CRM so I can engage productively with each post. it's a great way to network but also to generate leads and close deals if you are in a business mindset.

Step 2: organizing my networking targets into different lists

You might want to network with different types of people, some for partnerships, some for business, some for job opportunities and so on. Therefore you need to organize your connections with a Social Selling CRM mindset.

Example of different lists of people to network with

That's why I organize my new connections and networking targets into different lists inside Breakcold.

That way, every time i want to engage with them, the social selling feed inside the software will automatically adapt to the list I choose.

Step 3: engaging => connecting => engaging => posting content 🔁

Then my process is very simple: I engage as much as possible with the people I want to network with but I also post a lot of content.

The goal is to create a social selling loop, where you'll have an exponential LinkedIn growth which compounding results on the network you want to build.

All of this will increase your Social Selling Index (SSI) score which a key factor to get better networking results on LinkedIn.

This is what a Social Selling Loop looks like

Step 4: sending relevant private messages

When I like and comment the posts of someone I want to network with on LinkedIn, I'd often see something relevant at some point that's worth it to send a LinkedIn DM to the person. Relevancy is the best thing you can do when it comes to network with someone you don't know.

Step 5: turning conversations into Google Meet calls

If the people I network with turn out to be super interesting people for networking reasons or just if I can learn from them, I'll try to set up a "virtual coffee" with no other purposes that to have a nice chat.

Networking tip: always propose to book the call on their calendar link but give yours to avoid them making the effort of putting theirs in the conversation. That way, you won't look like a complete jerk to propose only your Calendly link like many people complain about.

Example of a networking call booked with Matteo

3°) Different scenarios about LinkedIn Networking

Here are a few LinkedIn networking examples for different types of scenarios.

1/ How to network on LinkedIn for a job

Ok, so I just saw this job offer on LinkedIn from trumpet, a buyer enablement software. How should we network with the founders 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.

Example of a networking method to find a job

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

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 Network on LinkedIn for business (and take it to a business call)

If you to network on LinkedIn to make some businesses, well, you're in the right place!

I think I already mentioned above with my personal networking technique how to network for business on LinkedIn so I will give you another example that went until a sales call.

So, it all started when I added Nate to a Breakcold list because I knew he could be a potential customer because he runs a sales development agency that is pretty successful. He's also quite popular on LinkedIn so I knew it would be difficult to reach out to him with a simple cold email if I wanted to sell him something and not asking for his services.

Example of someone who asked me for a networking call in a business setting

So it went like this:

• I added Nate in a Breakcold list

• I tracked his activities on social media

• I engaged with his LinkedIn posts every single day

• He reached out by himself without me contacting him

This is the first message he sent me:

I proposed him to book a time in his calendar but he never went back but ultimately because of one my LinkedIn post, he ended up receiving a video I made about how to get clients with sales prospecting and social selling.

From there, I was able to shoot him my calendar link and he booked a call.

All of this sounds super natural right? That's what networking on LinkedIn is all about.

3/ How to network on LinkedIn as a student

During the years I was a trainee Lawyer, I built myself a massive LinkedIn network of high-quality individuals (about 2000 people).

This is how I did it:

• every time I met someone in real life business event, I added them on LinkedIn

• every time I've done an internship or an interview, I added people on LinkedIn

• along my studies, I added my peers and the top performing students in my industry

• times to times, I also published my wins on LinkedIn like the time I received a scholarship to fund my studies at University of Oxford for my Master's degree

Example of how I went viral as a student to network with hundreds of people

With this process, I eventually went viral on LinkedIn within 3 weeks of trying to publish on LinkedIn because of how qualitative was my LinkedIn network and how engaged they were.

I ended almost reaching 1 million people in my native country (France) and received hundreds of LinkedIn connections requests from peers which led to many networking opportunities.

The conclusion of this networking story on LinkedIn as a student is that the quality of your LinkedIn network matters. It you have 20,000 LinkedIn connections but every single one of them don't care about you or don't know you at all, you'll never achieve anything meaningful on the platform.

Quality> Quantity.

4/ How to network on LinkedIn for an internship

I got all my internships during my studies thanks to cold emailing and LinkedIn.

Strategy 1: cold email + LinkedIn combo

First, I would send a cold email to the recruiters (not to the careers department of the company but to the partners themselves). Then, once I've sent my cold emails, I would add them on LinkedIn if I don't hear back from them.

Fortunately, most of them replied before this step and I often got the internship interview. What I would do in that case was to just look at their LinkedIn profile a few hours before the interview, basically stalking them to understand what we have in common or not.

Then after the interview, I would wait like 1 week before sending them a connection request. I didn't care if they wouldn't accept the connection request, the goal was primarily to remind them of my existence.

This LinkedIn networking hack got me tons of interviews and internships.

Strategy 2: use of LinkedIn only to network for an internship

At some point in my law studies, I wanted to do my internship abroad in a town like Singapour, Hong Kong or Dubai.

The first thing I did was to search for Lawyers abroad in these specific cities. I was for example typing "Tax Lawyer Dubai" in the LinkedIn search bar on my mobile.

_ Networking with alumni is the key for easy internships_

Then, I'll look for 2nd degree connections with ideally people who went to the same University (basically alumni) I did and I'll shoot them a LinkedIn invite straight away.

Finally, once they accepted the request I will send them a LinkedIn message asking to learn more how they went from Lawyer in France to Lawyer in Dubai/Hong Kong, and I'd ask for a 15/30 minutes call.

I never got a NO from someone, when you think about it, it's not a typical approach to get an internship so it worked like a charm.

During the networking calls, I got proposed some internships straight away without interviews because of my deep interest to go abroad and how original my approach was. We had the same resume anyway, so the box was already checked for them.

Conclusion

In conclusion, networking on LinkedIn is not complicated compare to real life networking in B2B events for example. Here you're behind your computer so you can have the time to think for proper answers to make things perfect.

I hope all these LinkedIn networking tips and examples will help you succeed.

If you should remember one thing about networking on LinkedIn, I'd say try to replicate the human interactions you do offline on the platform if you're serious about building strong B2B relationships.