How to expand your LinkedIn Network exponentially

If you’re looking to expand your professional network, LinkedIn is the place to be. LinkedIn has around 562+ Million members from across 200 countries and territories the world. What’s more? It is by far the most successful platform for generating B2B leads.

How big is your network?

Click this LinkedIn Search Link to get the size of your current 2nd degree network (works only on your desktop/laptop). Multiply the result by 100, to get a very rough estimate of your 3rd degree network size.

Why is it important to expand your network on LinkedIn?

Even though LinkedIn has 562M+ members, your search results are limited to only your network. What this means is that unless you search for a specific person by their name, your search results would only throw up people who are connected to you by at least 3rd degree on LinkedIn. Read this article to understand how LinkedIn defines various degrees of connections. So, your search results are quite limited unless your really expand your LinkedIn network.

Connect with LIONs

One of the best ways to get around this limitation and to expand your search is to connect with LIONs (LinkedIn Open Networkers) in your target geography. LIONs are people with a huge number of connections and who never refuse a connection request. For example, if you’re searching for leads/potential recruits in a certain country/region, the best bet is to first start off with searching for and connecting to LIONs in that region. What this does is that for every person you connect with, your network can grow by 1K to 100K people depending on how connected that person is. Hence, it is important to develop a strategy to ensure that your target audience/prospects are somehow connected to you at least by 3rd degree – else, they won’t be visible to you.

Join large industry groups

Another useful and quick fix to expand your network is to join large LinkedIn groups. The advantage with doing this is that all members of a group you join are considered part of your network because you’re both members of the same group.

Make the most of your Premium or Sales Navigator Account

In fact, even if you have a Premium or Sales Navigator account, you won’t see more names than those in your 3rd degree & Groups. The advantage of these paid accounts is that you get to shortlist the results with more filters. So, even with these paid accounts, to see more people, you must increase the size of your 3rd degree network!

Click this LinkedIn search link to find LIONS with large networks – each connection will get you roughly around 1M+ 3rd degree connections. Change “United States” in the filter on top to your target country if required.

That’s all for now! Keep watching this space for more useful tips to network on LinkedIn.

Finally, remember to share your feedback through the comments section below.

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The Journey Begins

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Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton