Finding That Right Connection Through LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the largest online professional networking platform today. A lot of people think that it’s either just for job seekers or companies that need to find staff. It can be more than that. There are so many industries on LinkedIn and so it really can be for any business.

Just how do you find that right connection through LinkedIn? Here’s my story.

A Little Bit of History

I’ve always been a bit of a technology geek. Over the years, I’ve done a lot experimenting to find out which technologies and platforms work and which don’t. I tended to learn by myself but I was teaching people how to use the internet by 2000.

LinkedIn was launched in 2003 and I was already a member by 2007.

I don’t remember how I came across it, but I’m naturally a connector so LinkedIn’s premise was right up my alley. With more than a decade of growing my network and learning more about maximising ever-evolving social networking platforms, I’ve learned a thing or two about LinkedIn’s potential for finding and building connections.

LinkedIn as a Handshake

Some of you may be scared to accept connection requests from people you don’t know. Here’s a tip: treat the request like a virtual handshake.

In the real world, if you go to a network meeting or any business event and someone introduced themselves to you, you wouldn’t reject a handshake. You would shake that person’s hand even though you have no idea about his or her background.

With this platform, it’s crucial to build real-life connections and relationships with individual people so the initial step of accepting a request is important. In these times of uncertainty and lockdowns, it’s even more important to keep doing these virtual handshakes.

First-Level and Second-Level Connections

One of the things you need to remember is that the bigger your first-level connection is, the bigger your second-level connection becomes.

First-level connections are your contacts: your family, friends, colleagues and professionals you’ve accepted into your network.

Meanwhile, second-level connections are the networks of your inner circle. These are the friends of friends, colleagues of colleagues, contacts of professionals. This set of second-level connections opens up a much broader network that you can search through and connect with.

Stories of Finding the Right Connections

I have a friend who lives in Colorado, USA had an animated story that the BBC wanted to pick up as a series. One day he sent me a request to find a lawyer in London, UK that specialises in media and entertainment law.

I lived on a farm in Adelaide, Australia. What was I supposed to do?

But I took this as a challenge for my networking skills. So, I went to LinkedIn and did some really specific searches using the location and keywords. I compiled a list of 10 targeted people. Then, I looked at each of their profiles to see who they were, what they did, and to get a bit more of an idea of who might be the right person for my friend to actually use in his business.

I found a second-level connection who had a lot of information on her LinkedIn profile. I sent her a message about who I am and what I needed, and I asked if she would be interested in being connected with my friend. She accepted the connection request straight away and I managed to establish the three-way contact.

Just to prove that LinkedIn works with any industry, I found a real estate agent through this platform who managed to sell one of our farms.

There’s also a business in the US that I’m assisting. It’s developing an app that contains credentials for firefighters. These credentials need to be constantly updated. So, I’ve been searching for fire chiefs for this company.

Do you want to learn more about building your own LinkedIn network? Then connect with me and let’s have our virtual handshake.