6 Ways to Maximize Your LinkedIn Profile's Impact

Kevin Leyes

With 722 million members, LinkedIn is the largest social-media platform for business interactions. It's a powerful tool for both recruiters and job seekers, as well as business-to-business (B2B) interactions: 55 million companies and 61 million senior-level influencers are on LinkedIn. With so much opportunity, it's important to have a LinkedIn strategy that helps you build relationships for a high return. So what does that look like?

Why you need a LinkedIn strategy

Like any other large social-media platform, as LinkedIn grows there are more and more people who use the platform to spam users directly in an attempt to sell something. It might be tempting to go this route, but building relationships before selling is key on LinkedIn. This way, you build trust with potential clients or customers, which will make them much more likely to buy what you’re selling.

With the right LinkedIn strategy, you can easily form those relationships. LinkedIn states this itself: “LinkedIn is most effective when you use it as a relationship-building platform.” You might have hundreds of connections, but if you’re not building meaningful relationships with those connections, you won’t see much productivity or profitability from the platform.

The best LinkedIn strategies for building relationships

1) Research your prospects

Before you connect with someone, do your research on him or her. Read through his or her profile, taking note of any commonalities you might share that you can bring up in later conversations. While you’re at it, check out what LinkedIn groups the person is in. Then, take your research off LinkedIn and check out his or her company’s website and social profiles. You can even google his or her name to get a complete picture of who the person is.

2) Use LinkedIn groups

Not sure where to find prospects? If you’ve exhausted your other lists, LinkedIn groups are a great place to look. The groups are meant to help people find others in the same industry or with shared interests. Since LinkedIn only allows you to join 50 groups, be mindful about which groups you join. You can also join groups that your prospects are in if you don’t have any other acquaintances to give yourself an in.

3) Be open and honest

When you connect with your prospect, send a personalized message along with it. Include why you’d like to connect and, if possible, include what the mutual benefit would be. Perhaps you just met at a networking event — or maybe you don’t know them at all and have no acquaintances. LinkedIn is made for these types of connections, so don’t be shy.

See all 6 ways and the complete Entrepreneur article