LinkedIn Marketing Guide for Business in 2021 by BestBusinessBooks - HTML preview

Section 3

Building your community

The LinkedIn community is made up of connections which are categorized into the degree of connection.

1ST DEGREE

1st degree connections are people who you have directly connected through the acceptance of an invitation to connect. You can send messages to 1st connections, write them recommendations, endorse them, see their updates in your LinkedIn feed, and receive notifications when they publish a post.

2ND DEGREE

A 2nd degree is someone who is connected to one our your 1st degree connections. You can send them an invitation by clicking ‘Connect’ or contact them through an InMail.

3RD DEGREE

A 3rd degree is someone who is connected to one of your 2nd degree connections. You can send them an invitation by clicking ‘Connect’. If only the first letter of their last name is displayed, clicking Connect isn’t an option but you can contact them through an InMail.

CONNECTING TO SOMEONE YOU KNOW

Your network is made up of your 1st-degree, 2nd-degree, 3rd-degree connections, and fellow members of your LinkedIn groups.

PEOPLE YOU MAY KNOW

People you may know will be suggested to you based on commonalities, shared connections, experiences, industry and education. Your screen will be populated once you have a some 1st degree connections.

LINKEDIN INVITATIONS

Make sure to use personalized invitations instead of generic ones, since it is more effective and shows genuine interest in your connection.

AVOIDING BUSINESS RELIANCE

It’s important to avoid becoming reliant upon any one feature within the LinkedIn platform. As with all social media, changes can be made to the platform and mobile app with no notice at all.

This has included the adding and taking away of different features which can change the dynamic within the platform. It is advisable for your business not to become too reliant upon specific features within LinkedIn.

Connect with people with whom you have worked or done business, or generally people with similar interests or work in your industry. Invite thought leaders in your industry to connect so that you might establish a relationship with them and, eventually, gain access to their network.

FIND MEANINGFUL CONTACTS

• Start with people you know. First reach out to friends, colleagues, relatives and business contacts as this will help you build the first layer of your network.
• Find people by company. Search under the “Companies” tab so you can start looking for employees that are working in your industry. You can use this method of search to find the contacts for the types of companies your business is trying to target.
• Start asking and answering questions on LinkedIn Answers. In this medium, you will be able to interact and connect with thought leaders, as well as establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
• Update your status often. Your status appears on your profile and in the LinkedIn Network Updates email to your connections. Thus, others may take notice of what you are working on and decide to connect or click through on links in your status.
• Connect your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. LinkedIn now allows you to connect your Twitter account to your LinkedIn profile via your status. This feature allows you to post a LinkedIn status message to Twitter

and to pull a tweet into your LinkedIn status. Enabling this feature will help you leverage both of these networks to build connections on both sites. Follow these step-by-step instructions to connect your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.