LinkedIn: Getting Connected
The goal of LinkedIn is to use it to help connect you to people you don’t know through the ones you do know. You never know where a valuable referral will come from. The goal is to connect only to people you know well, but to connect to everyone you know well. Connect to friends, family, professors/QU staff, former employers and co-workers. You should never try to connect to someone you don’t already know.
You need at least 50 connections to get good results from a search and have a complete profile.
Strive for 50 as quickly as possible, and aim for at least 150 by the time you graduate.
Keep in mind; LinkedIn is helping you leverage the power of your full network, three degrees removed from yourself. So, it isn’t about only connecting to people in the publishing industry if that is your target industry. You never know whom your connections might know. In fact, often they themselves won’t know until you tell them. Many people have hundreds, if not thousands, of 1st degree connections on LinkedIn and millions in their overall network.
When requesting a connection to someone, you should do it with a personal touch.
If you click on the “My Network” link, LinkedIn shows you any pending invitations to connect which you have received and also offers a “People You May Know” section. If you see someone in that list that you want to connect with, if you simply hit “connect” you will send that person a generic “I would like to connect with you on LinkedIn” email. Unless you already know this person really well and are frequently in touch with them you should not do this. Even if you just finished talking with the person in real life and talked about connecting on LinkedIn, it’s still not a great idea. Why? Because LinkedIn is about networking and networking is about building relationships with people not just playing a game to see who can get the most connections. A connection request is an opportunity to officially establish or reinforce a relationship and it should have a personal touch.
Instead of clicking the “connect” button, click on the person’s name to access their full profile. Once you are on their profile page, hitting connect will open a new screen rather than sending an automatic message and you’ll see an “Add a note” option to customize the note they will receive.
While some people refer to themselves in their headlines as “LIONS” (LinkedIn Open Networkers) and will accept any connection request, many people only want to connect with people they know. Does that mean you should never try to connect with a stranger? No. Even if they do not proclaim themselves a LION, many complete strangers will be happy to connect and interact if you give them a good reason to do so. Is this person someone you know something about and admire? Is it someone that has had a career path similar to what you’d like to do? Is it a hiring manager in your target industry? When you send your connection request, send your personal note and tell them that! You may be surprised at how many folks are willing to connect, especially with students and younger professionals who share an interest.
Remember, if someone ignores your connection request or if you just don’t feel comfortable sending one to a stranger, you can also “Follow” anyone on the platform without their permission (similar to Twitter). This is a great way to stay alert to their activities on LinkedIn and comment on their activity as a way to get noticed and perhaps build a connection over time.
