“It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know” - someone
Isn’t that the truth? Yes people’s talents and abilities vary greatly, but life is not a pure meritocracy. If you’re not connected to the right people with the right opportunity at the right time it doesn’t matter what you know or how talented you are, those opportunities will probably go to someone else. Your network is incredibly valuable.
Many years ago I used to just connect with people I met in person and would occasionally accept invites with those I had brief contact with online and got to around a few hundred connections. When I started getting closer to that 500+ milestone I was a bit looser with my policy. Once you get to 500+ it’s great because your profile will look similar to all the big shots with huge rolodexes and people will never know how big or small your network is beyond 500. I wasn’t as aggressive growing my network after 500, but later on I started to realize that any connection is better than nothing. We could all be just one degree away from a golden opportunity right? I just started accepting anyone’s request and getting into the thousands, but I didn’t actively try to grow my network.
It wasn’t until late last year I watched a Neil Patel growth hacking conference webinar and Dan McGaw discussed a tactic to grow email lists by joining LinkedIn groups, adding as many contacts as you can and exporting all the emails. I thought that was a great way to start up a email campaign. I started joining all the groups I was interested in: ReactJS/Clojure for software development, Bitcoin/Blockchain in technology, Angel Investor networks as well as some Growth Hacking ones. I just started clicking every day and built up my network to 4,000+ until LinkedIn did a redesign and stopped allowing connecting through groups! I was so disappointed, but then I soon realized you can actually search for people by keyword and that’s just as effective! I gained over 7,000 connections this last month alone!
So here is the low down on how to to grow a high quality network fast:
Do the best you can to make your profile stand out and be attractive. If you’re a founder/CEO that automatically makes you attractive even if you’re bootstrapping like me wearing pj’s from a dingy apartment. People will definitely view your profile so make the best impression you can so your acceptance rate is as high as possible. I’ve gotten 3,610 profile views the last 90 days. I actually listed some of the things I’m recruiting for on my profile.
To grow a high quality and targeted network, use the most targeted keywords for areas you are interested in and enter them in the search bar. My keywords were: ReactJs / Clojure / Bitcoin / Blockchain / Angel Investor / Growth Hacker
It seems to me any mention of the keyword in a user’s profile will allow LinkedIn to display them as relevant, even if they are just in a group with that keyword.Click on the ‘People’ tab
On the right side panel on the ‘People’ tab, it shows ‘Filter people by’ to have a more refined search. Start by clicking the 2nd degree contacts and 3rd degree contacts check boxes. If the results show more than 1,000 you can filter to geographic locations like the US or SF Bay Area. Sometimes you might be limited by the number of searches you can make, but LinkedIn gives you a lot of runway. If I hit my limit I’m going to eventually sign up and trial the Premium version to get even more targeted searches.
Once you have 1,000 search results, just click away at the ‘Connect’ button. It will probably take less than an hour a day to send 1,000 requests, but it is tedious work and you have to be consistent. Unfortunately you have to click a button twice to send a request because they will ask you if you want to add a note along with your request. I never do.
As you grow your list, you’ll start to expand your general 2nd degree contacts that show up in ‘People You May Know’ in your ‘My Network’ tab. You can more easily connect with these people with only one click of the button for each person. Also the larger your network grows there is a snowball effect with 2nd & 3rd+ degree contacts.
To grow your network even faster you can use a hack to click the buttons on your ‘People You May Know’ list all at once. On Chrome, you can go to your Developer Tools panel and enter the following on the console:
javascript:var inputs = document.getElementsByClassName('mn-person-card__person-btn-ext button-secondary-medium');
for(var i=0; i<inputs.length;i++) {
inputs[i].click();
}
[Note: You can use this on any website where it allows you to click on the same button multiple times. All you need to do is inspect the button element on the developer's panel and put the text between the quotes after where it says ‘class’ and replace the bolded text above.]
With this you can expand your network more broadly and make hundreds of requests in seconds! This method is faster because you’re just connecting to random second degree contacts, but it’s not as targeted. However once you build a network in targeted areas, 2nd degree connections will likely be similar to those you’re looking for. Next:
Respond to anyone who writes you! Probably less than 1% will message you. Make sure you cultivate all your connections and it’ll probably take another 30 mins/hr to respond to everyone and more time if you schedule calls via Skype. You’ll meet a lot of interesting people and everyone is incredibly professional. It’s one of the easiest ways to network with people efficiently anyways. Also be prepared to explain your request because many might think you’re connecting with them for something specific and not know you’re trying to build a massive network. If someone asks why you can write something like the following in your own style: “Thanks for connecting [Name]! I’m just expanding my network in the [blockchain/bitcoin] space to share and learn. Let me know if you need anything and I’ll do the same. Have a good day!“
Once you have a list you can export all the emails and you can provide your connections with value. That’s the key! Find content you think is extremely valuable and give, give, give as much as possible just like Josh Fechter does with growth hacking tactics and you’ll build a great reputation.
Whenever you get to the email campaign part (btw I haven’t yet), you should send a re-introduction email to your list. Dan McGaw had a very clever opt out email template using a Mailchimp form that would look something like:
Hello I’m Jun Dam, Founder and CEO of Bitcash
I’m trying to clean up my address book and hoping you can help me. Especially if you don’t want me to email you again.
Simply put, all I need is for you to spend less than 20 seconds clicking a few checkboxes”
Mailchimp form options are:
- Update my info in 20 seconds [ User Can Select Categories/Topics of Interest]
- I’m too lazy to check boxes, keep emailing me.
- I don’t like you Jun. Please remove me.
That should really work well right?
Conclusion:
So I’m going to try to build my network to 30,000 in the next couple months. Imagine that. Every contact you have should be worth at least $1 on average and probably a lot more, but more importantly one contact can lead you to a golden opportunity! So who’s going to join me in the 30,000 club?
Image Credit: Designed by Alvaro_cabrera - Freepik.com
Why stop at 30,000?! ;)
Jk, that is awesome and thanks for the valuable tips. There is a lot of great info here!
Thanks! Glad you found it valuable! I'd probably keep going.. but I believe 30,000 is the limit for the LinkedIn platform. There might be ways to go beyond that somehow, but not clear from searching the web exactly how the limit works.
If you can persuade 10% of them to use Steemit we could double the active users! Well, they could at least be made aware of it. I've not found much use for Linkedin yet, even when I was looking for a job. I hear some people use it for networking
Yes. That's part of the plan. I'll probably segment the blockchain/bitcoin connections and do something targeted. If we all build up contacts in the blockchain space we'll have hundreds of thousands to reach out to and if we get a conversion of 10% as you say... that would be incredible. We'll probably help create a more blockchain-specific publication that @andrarchy was discussing with us at @team.alpha.. Yes LinkedIn was not that great before, but slowly it's getting more useful. Good to work on your profile and then just reach out to people you're interested in whatever field it may be!
Well thank you for this info - did not know that just by Use of Keywords, one could accomplish similar growth.
Kudos. Fine post. Enjoyed the NEIL PATEL reference
Glad it helped. Yes using keywords is powerful!
Great tips. I am not on linked in but valuable info in any case. What strategy so you use for Steemit? Your doing very well follower wise, I'd love to know how to get to 500+ here too.
Well I was here early and had some successful posts early on so that definitely helped. Best way is to focus on providing the best content you can for the audience you want to share to. Other than that 1) follow others 2) interact and comment on people's posts 3) ask people to follow you at the end of each post... hope that helps! BTW I just followed you!
Thanks for sharing this information. I have just recently created a LinkedIn account and will bookmark this for reference.
Thanks for adding it to your twitter feed @thecryptofiend!
The Cryptofiend tweeted @ 13 Apr 2017 - 00:48 UTC
#guide… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…
Disclaimer: I am just a bot trying to be helpful.
Thanks for sharing.
@steemrollin
Resteem.!!
Anytime. Thanks for resteeming @tinachung!
You are welcome.
I love you ♡♡♡
@steemrollin
** blush** Likewise! 8)
I'd add into this an important clarification that it's not simply about the numbers growth, but the value provided to be leveraged through the broader network...
(So much marketing stuff strictly focused on getting leads and eyeballs on YOU, versus a mature balanced perspective of then removing yourself from the picture to reconnect to the PURPOSE beyond profit and status, as to what positive influence is to be delivered and the ultimate WHY of how it shall SERVE)...
Hey @rok-sivante! Long time. I agree with your sentiments. It can be a vanity metric, but that's how you get people to read your post in the first place right? lol... But another way to think of it is that you will have a larger network of connections you can provide value for. It gives you a greater opportunity to provide value to others just as much as it gives you the opportunity to receive value. Anyways hope all is well!
Nice article :)