This will be your complete guide on how to get more LinkedIn Connections. To ensure an Optimized LinkedIn profile, you will need as many connections as you can possibly get. This will in turn make your profile more relevant and make you more prone to being reached out to by recruiters and hiring managers.
Learn about the most efficient frameworks on how to get more LinkedIn connections.
Getting more LinkedIn Connections
To get more LinkedIn Connections, let’s categorize this between people that you know and people that you don’t know.
People you know
Regarding LinkedIn Connections, people that you know will consist of:
- Family
- Friends
- Colleagues
- Mentors
- Professors
- Managers
At the minimum, you’ll refer to all of the above to establish your baseline regarding LinkedIn Connections. Don’t forget, at any time, if you stumble upon someone that you would like to connect with, just connect with them! You don’t have to personally know those on LinkedIn to connect with them.
It’s one of the beautiful things about using a tool such as LinkedIn for your job search – you can connect with those that you never would’ve been able to meet.
Family
Start off with your parents, siblings, cousins, close relatives, family friends, etc. that are on LinkedIn. This will give you a solid foundation to start building your profile with some connections.
Friends
After family, start reaching out to all of your friends. Friends can be those from elementary, middle, high school, all the way to college. People that you had classes with, hung out with, studied together, can all fit under this category.
Colleagues
Next, take into account colleagues that you have worked with from an academic or business standpoint. Jobs, internships, co-ops, office work, are all fair game here. Evaluate the people that you know and connect with them on LinkedIn.
Mentors
Think about all of the people who gave you guidance throughout your life. Teachers, counselors, principals, etc are some of those that are a great example of mentors. Having a mentor could be one of the best things as it’ll help you in your formative years.
Professors
Connect with teachers all the way from elementary, middle, high school, or college and university! School faculty people will often be connected to others that are in the industry – great way to make your profile more relevant by connecting with them.
Managers
Connect with the managers that you’ve had in your jobs – can be part time or full time jobs. Retail, food, or white collar office environments all work. Connecting with your managers may make you more relevant as managers will be connected to other managers, directors, and even senior leadership.
People you don’t know
Now that you’ve exhausted people that you know, let’s take a look at people you don’t know for LinkedIn connections.
People that you don’t know can consist of those you would share regarding:
- Alma Matter
- Coworkers (work at same company, but not on same team)
- Mutual connections
These 3 will give you an additional avenue to connect with if you’re looking for that sweet 500+ connections number on LinkedIn.
Alma Matter
LinkedIn will give you suggestions on who to connect with based on if they went to the same school as you. This is a great way to build instant relationships and boost the strength and relevancy of your LinkedIn profile.
See for example what a suggested LinkedIn connection would look like for someone who went to UCLA:
The stronger your profile, the more likely you will show up.
Coworkers
One of the great things about LinkedIn is that it also recommends people that you share the same employer with. This is great to add more connections but to also potentially find out about opportunities in different departments. Internal job hunting is one of the easiest ways to get a 10-20% pay raise.
Mutual Connections
As you can see from the image above, LinkedIn will show the number of mutual connections that you have with someone. You can potentially use this as an “ice-breaker” in the sense that if you know X, then they will be more likely to connect with you. X being the mutual friend that you share together.
Last Ditch Effort
As a last ditch effort, if you’ve exhausted all of the above resources, do this. Simply just connect with everyone that you see pop up that LinkedIn recommends to you. Connect with as many people as you can (some may ignore you, but that will be fine).
If you do this alone by itself for a long period of time, it will be easy to rack up a ton of connections.
To add a bonus to strengthen your connections, make sure to send a personalized message to them. You never know what some of the amazing opportunities this can lead to.
Why it’s important to get more LinkedIn Connections
Having more LinkedIn Connections will make your profile more relevant in search, will make you more relevant to recruiters and hiring managers, and will allow you to build a strong professional network.
Follow the steps above and use those resources and we’re sure that you can get to 500+ connections easily.
Closing Thoughts on getting more LinkedIn Connections
Even if you feel like you don’t have a strong network, it is really easy to get established on LinkedIn.
Follow the guidelines above and reach out to friends, family, coworkers, colleagues, etc.
If you don’t have many friends, family, or colleagues, you can always invite people that you don’t know to connect.
While you should be working to reach out and build your individual skills, you should also make sure to learn as much as you can and build a strong skillset. (You can even post about your specific skillset and even grow a following on LinkedIn – we’ll save that for another time.)
Are you struggling with building your LinkedIn Profile?
Book a LinkedIn Optimization service with us.
FAQ about getting more connections on LinkedIn
To connect with more people on LinkedIn, simply just reach out to people that you know. Friends, family, colleagues, anything is fair game. Once you’ve exhausted those options, you can start reaching out to who LinkedIn recommends to you.
Yes 100%! This is a great way to start building professional relationships – especially with people in positions that you’re in or jobs that you’re looking for.
It’s totally fine to connect with people you don’t know. In fact, we encourage it. This is a great way to leverage tools such as LinkedIn to connect with those that you wouldn’t be able to meet in real life.
About the author
Kazuyoshi Fujimoto, PE
Founder | Engineering Career Coach | Principal Mechanical Engineer
Kazu oversees all of ultmeche’s engineering services. He provides consulting such as resume reviews, rewrites, mock interviews, and all services career related. Additionally, Kazu performs consulting work regarding Oil & Gas, Automotive, and Aerospace & Defense. Kazu is licensed as a professional engineer in the state of California and has 9+ years of experience in Oil & Gas, Automotive, and Aerospace & Defense.
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