What’s your approach to adding connections on LinkedIn? Are you happy to welcome anyone into your network or do you prefer to have at least one conversation first? Some people are very selective of who they connect with while others lay the welcome mat at their profile door. Whichever kind you are, there are a lot of benefits to searching for connections on LinkedIn.
Become the Top Connection
There are millions of business professionals on LinkedIn, some of them will become mutual connections whereas others will be your competition. Regardless of who they are, how do you make sure your profile is the one everyone is viewing?
Searching for connections on LinkedIn is like networking at a physical event. The more you show your face, the more likely people will remember you. Well, on LinkedIn, it’s even easier than that. The more you search for connections and the more profiles you view, the wider your reach becomes across the platform. Being active on LinkedIn like this will push your profile out to people you might not have thought to search for.
Increase Your Profile Views
Outside of increasing your connections, searching for people on LinkedIn will also increase your profile views. LinkedIn has this handy feature where people can see who recently checked out their profile. So, whether you decide to send a connection request or not, they might return the favour. Without even connecting with this person, LinkedIn will have registered that your profile is one people want to see.
Even when it might feel like the algorithm is your enemy, LinkedIn tries to show people what it thinks they want to see on their feeds. Searching for connections not only increases your profile views but also improves your content engagement. The greater your presence becomes from searching for connections, the more likely LinkedIn is to favour your posts.
Grow Your Network
This is what it’s all about. It’s no surprise that searching for connections on LinkedIn will increase the size of your network. However, it’s not just about who you are connected with. We’ve already covered how searching for connections will put your profile in more people’s suggested connections and your content in their feeds. What we haven’t talked about is how every time you search for a new connection, it is improving your LinkedIn experience.
Through the connections you make and keywords you use to search for them, LinkedIn will tailor your own connection suggestions to include more of what you have already been searching for. Simply put, searching for connections will both actively and passively grow your LinkedIn network.
So, don’t wait for people to find you. The power is literally in your hands.