Expand Your Linkedin Network Rapidly
Use the Linkedin “Add Connections” Function
On the side of every Linkedin page you will find a green button Add Connections. Click on this button to begin your first step in expanding your network. This will take you to a page where you can manually add six invitations at one time. We will come back to the manual input in a moment. First we want to use Linkedin automated tools.
You will find a tab on that same page “Import Contacts”. You will click here to import contacts from Outlook, and webmail services like Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL and other electronic address books.
I’ve had a Hotmail account for eight years. From the choices, I clicked on Hotmail. My connection did not go through the first time (See the tip at the end of this section). The second time Linkedin connected to my entire email list in Hotmail and displayed a 193 contacts. (Since I only use Hotmail as a back up email program, I had forgotten most of the people listed on this email file.)
If a person is already on Linkedin, they will have a small blue icon after their name. This is a great place to make your first invitations to help in your job search. These are people who are already familiar with Linkedin and suitable candidates to add to your network. (Use your own set of criteria for who you want on your network).
You then click to identify which of these people you want to send an invitation to. In my case I choose 18 current Linkedin people as my first set of invitations. This created a list (their names and email addresses are already on the Linkedin list because it extracted the list from your webmail accounts), on the right side of the page.
Personalize the Invitation
I checked the box that says I want to “Personalize my Invitation”. I was given a screen box in which I could type my personalize invitation rather than the standard Linkedin form.
Since I was sending 18 of these invitations at one time, I wanted to make the invitation semi-personal. This is not a mass mailing nor is it a one to one mailing.
Here’s what I wrote: “I see that you are on Linkedin just as I am. I would love to connect with you. I am currently working on an e-book of tips for people using the Linkedin program and would like to send it to you. Let’ connect on each others network. Thanks.” Al
Notice a couple of things about this semi-personal note. It is more general than a one to one (you can always send out individual personal invitations). Second, I offered them something in return for joining my network. My mother taught me that whenever I visited a friend’s house, I should bring some type of treat or gift. This is my version of “visiting” someone. It is my hope that the email tips sheet will be seen as useful to the other person and an incentive to connect with me on Linkedin.
A Job Search Message
You can create your own personalized job search message. Here’s one suggested message you may find useful. “I see that you are on Linkedin just as I am. I would love to connect with you. I am currently in the process of a job search XYZ. I am using Linkedin as a tool for my job search. It would helpful to me, if we could connect and be part of each other’s network. Let’ connect. Thanks.” Al
Once I was finished with my message, I click to send the invitation. Linkedin will personalize the invitation with the person’s name. I was immediately notified that 18 invitations were sent. By the next morning I already had four responses that people had joined my network.
Because my hotmail list had almost two hundred names, I went back several times and follow the above steps until I had send email invitation to all the people I wanted to from my Hotmail list. If you have a large list you can go back to your list several times to do this process.
To be continued, your comments are welcomed…
Al Hanzal
