How to connect with people on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn now has over 740 million users with over 55 million registered companies. Unlike other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn has always targeted professional connections, making it an ideal platform for professional networking.

It is a popular social media platform widely used by job seekers to search for a job and build professional connections for career advancement. It is also a popular source for the recruiter to search for the right candidate, and it is proved to be a reliable source for many businesses to generate leads.

However, to get the most out of LinkedIn, one must know how to optimize LinkedIn account and connect with the right set of people. In this one guide. We will walk you through all the crucial pieces of information you have been looking for.

Whether you are looking to leverage LinkedIn to get your dream job or own a business and are here to learn the effective ways to generate leads through LinkedIn, this article is for you. We have covered it all.

Here's is what you will find in this guide:

• How to keep your LinkedIn profile up to date and build networks?
• How to gain social proofs for your skills and talents?
• Why is it important to leverage keywords in your LinkedIn profile?
• How to personalize your Linkedin connection request?

A few important questions that we will cover in this guide:

• What are the benefits of using LinkedIn?
• How to connect with people on LinkedIn
• How to block someone on LinkedIn?
• The dos and the don'ts of a LinkedIn?

What are the Benefits of Using LinkedIn?

LinkedIn was started primarily to link employers with potential employees. However, it has evolved much beyond the recruiting and networking social site in recent years.

LinkedIn is a valuable networking tool and a great platform to cultivate meaningful interactions. Many people still underestimate the importance of LinkedIn profiles and are sometimes reluctant to join social media platforms.

LinkedIn is a hub of activity. Utilizing all the features that LinkedIn has to offer can add a great value to your life. Let's have a look at a few and most important ones-

A Great Job Board

LinkedIn is unquestionably a great social media tool for job-seeking professionals. New opportunities exist throughout the LinkedIn site every coming day.

You can apply for the job postings by using LinkedIn apply, or you also have the option to save job searches.

Let's have a look at a few tips to maximize the potential of your LinkedIn profile.

• Keep your profile up to date: Make sure to update your LinkedIn profile regularly. Add a professional profile photo, update the headline, which is listed below your picture, and include your considerable skills for the recruiters to find you.
• Build your network to 1st degree: 1st-degree connections are the actual connection of yours. Building networks can exponentially increase your exposure and access to other connections.
• Get involved in LinkedIn professional groups: LinkedIn groups are a knowledge hub that will help you expand your network and possibly connect with organizations and people you want to work for in the future.

Advanced Research Tool

To get the most out of LinkedIn, you need to know how to use it strategically. That includes using LinkedIn as a prospective and research tool. LinkedIn advanced search features help you make connections with the right set of people and gain valuable insights.

You can use your LinkedIn profile to research companies and hiring managers. This comes in handy when you are applying for new jobs.

LinkedIn is a great platform to build a personal brand by creating awareness and sharing meaningful content.

Social Proof for Your Skills and Talents

LinkedIn acts as a social proof for your existing skills and talents. Many employers peek into your LinkedIn profile to verify the information you mention in your resume for the rising fraudulent information.

The three features of LinkedIn help you gain social proof of your skills.

• Endorsements: LinkedIn feature allows your connections to come to your profile and endorse you for specific skills by simply hitting an "endorse" button.
• Recommendations: A recommendation is a commendation written by your LinkedIn connections to recognize your work.
• Kudos: This is a new feature on LinkedIn. It allows a person to acknowledge the other person for certain qualities they have been benefitted from.

How to Connect With People on LinkedIn?

The foremost tip for LinkedIn networking is you shouldn't connect with people to increase your connections. Use your connect request more strategically to build meaningful networking.

Adding quality LinkedIn connections improves your job prospects and builds relationships with the target clients- depending on your goal.

Connecting with someone on LinkedIn is a two-way process. You need to send a request and then wait for the other person to accept or ignore your request.

Once the person accepts your request, you have a complete access to their profile, and you also have the option to message them directly.

Tips for building your LinkedIn connections:

• Engage with existing connections
• Personalize your LinkedIn connection request
• Leverage keywords in your LinkedIn profile

How to Engage with Existing Connections?

If you are new to LinkedIn, then the first step towards building LinkedIn connections is to engage with people you already know- They can be your friends, colleagues, or classmates.

You can like and comment on your network's posts. Commenting or putting up questions with your insights can exponentially increase your engagement and exposure on LinkedIn.

Participation in your network's content is a simply considerate thing to do for appreciating someone to spend so much time and energy in putting the content out.

Why Should You Personalize Your Connection Request?

While you are scrolling through "people you may know" on LinkedIn, if you click the connect button, a generic request is sent.

Instead, visit the person's profile page to connect and click the connect button there. Doing so will bring up a box and will allow you to add a personal note with your LinkedIn connection request.

Personalizing your connection requests on LinkedIn increases the probability of request acceptance. While personalizing your invitation request, think of what will make it worth his time to speak with you.

Take advantage of the 300 characters available for invitation notes. Let's have a look at five p's to write a LinkedIn request that will never get declined:

• Polite
• Pertinent
• Personalized
• Professional
• Praiseful

When you send a customized invitation note, It must have the following information for the recipient:

• Do they know you?
• If so, how do they know you?
• If not, why should they know you?

How to Leverage Keywords in Your LinkedIn Profile?

Recruiters rely on LinkedIn's algorithms to search for an eligible candidate for the job position. Recruiter's do the keyword skills based on the skills they need.

To show up in the search results, it's crucial to make your profile keyword optimized.

Let's have a look at a few ways to incorporate keywords in your LinkedIn profile

• Your Location: Update the location where you are targeting for a job
• Professional headline: For example, Applications Developer | Senior Programmer | 10+ Years Specializing in Programming Mobile & Web-Based Applications
• Skills & endorsements: With relevant skills and endorsements from your ist connections will help you gain both credibility and visibility
• LinkedIn about section: Formerly called the "Summary," you have up to 2,600 characters to describe your background in your About section.
• The Experience section: Emphasize the relevant experience for the job you want next.
• LinkedIn URL: Customizing the LinkedIn URL by adding profession at the end can be helpful to show up in keyword research

p.c: Business Insider

How to Block someone on LinkedIn?

Blocking someone on any social media platform can be nerve-racking. What if the other person comes to know that you have blocked them? Well, in LinkedIn, they will never know.

LinkedIn is a platform for professionals. However, like any other social media platform, it also has spammers and scammers.

Here are a few reasons why you would want to block someone on LinkedIn:

• They spam your inbox with marketing messages
• They use LinkedIn as a dating site
• They post cringe content on LinkedIn
• The LinkedIn profile is fake
• They spam with newsletters you never subscribed to

Steps to follow if you would like to block someone on LinkedIn:

• Step 1: Visit the profile of the person you would like to block
• Step 2: Click the more button available below the person's profile picture and on the right-hand side of the message icon
• Step 3: Click on the report/block button from the drop-down menu.
• Step 4: Click on the block from the "what do you want to do?" pop up window.
• Step 5: Or, if you feel the profile is fake, you can hit the report this profile option

You can block up to 1200 members on LinkedIn. If you have blocked someone and now you want to unblock them, the steps to follow are:

• Tap on the profile icon from the navigation bar
• Go to settings at the upper right corner
• Select on the visibility option
• You will locate the blocking option if you scroll down
• You will get the list of the people you have blocked, tap on the unblock option next to the person's profile

Note: You will have to wait for 48 hours to re-block the person you have unblocked.

The Dos and the Don'ts of a LinkedIn

Like and other social media platforms, LinkedIn has its own etiquettes. Therefore, it's best to learn the dos and don'ts of using a LinkedIn account to avoid making a wrong impression.

• Write an abridged version of your professional work experience. Focus more on the targeted position. Use action verbs, numbers, and bullet points to make it more readable.
• Include as many skills as possible relevant to the targeted job profile. Reach out to people for endorsements and recommendations and do the same for others.
• Be proactive. Post relevant and value- providing the content. Like and comment on the content that resonates with you.

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Key Takeaways

Here's is quick roundup of the guide on "How To Connect With People On LinkedIn":

• Build your network to 1st degree and engage in LinkedIn professional groups to expand your network and help you connect with the right people and the organization you will want to work with.
• Get social proof of your skills and talents by asking for endorsements and recommendations from the people you have worked with.
• Customize your LinkedIn URL. You can personalize it to your name or a professional brand associated with you.
• Personalize your connection request that will exponentially increase your connection request acceptance rate.
• Block the spammers on LinkedIn if they are in your network. But remember, you will have to wait for 48 hours to re-block the person you have unblocked.