Networking on LinkedIn | Getting Responses and Generating Leads

In this video, I'm going to teach you how to network on LinkedIn in order to secure a job, find new clients, or just broaden your professional community. What's up? It's Jamal. Welcome back to the channel. If you're a business looking to capitalize on LinkedIn, you want to download our free LinkedIn for business and Marketing ebook to help you deploy our strategies after this video. That goes for you freelancers too. Out there, I see you hustling hard. The link is in the description. Promoting yourself and your business on all digital platforms requires an ongoing learning process. Now, if you spent any time on LinkedIn, you know that the site is a lot more than just job listing. In fact, what makes LinkedIn stand out from other career sites is the professional networking tools that allow you to make direct connections with individuals with whom you can potentially do business. That's why a survey published by LinkedIn revealed that 25%, a quarter of participants said that the site helped them establish a new business partnership. And 61% of participants believe that regular online interaction with their network can lead to possible job opportunities. So how do you begin networking on LinkedIn? I've divided the networking process into three steps that I call the three Ps. Let's start with profile. Before you can network on LinkedIn, you need to make sure your profile is ready. This mainly refers to your personal profile, because that's the one you'll use for outreach. But if you're representing your own company, you want to make sure that the company page is presentable as well. The first thing you need to do is choose an image. Probably have lots of fun or potentially compromising photos on platforms like Instagram or Facebook. But for LinkedIn, your profile pic should look friendly and professional. That means a headshot on a clean background and choosing clothing like you would wear to a job interview in your field. I better not catch you in a crop top, all right? Even if you look real, real good in it. All right, Which I know I do personally, you're not gonna see that on my LinkedIn. If you're building a company page, a clean logo is the best bet for your profile pic. And use the banner image to promote the company, either with graphics or images. But more important than the pictures you use on LinkedIn is literally what you say. Your personal profile has a headline right below your name. It also appears on every post and comment you make, as well as in search results. Most people use the space to list their job title and company, and that's fine. But savvy Users will use this premium real estate to say something more profound about themselves as it pertains to their professional role. Company profiles also have a headline, but these only appear on an actual company page. Both personal and company profile pages also have a longer section that lets you provide some details. I generally cannot overemphasize how important these are. All right, are you looking at me? Look at me. Where are you? There you are. Eyes right here. These are critical not just for the users who read them, but also for the LinkedIn algorithm that helps you be found. Finally, take the time to fill out as many additional fields as you can in your profile. Individuals should enter all their work experience, education and skills. There's also a place for requesting recommendations from friends and colleagues who might want to say nice things about you. Companies can create landing pages for particular products and services. You can also make a life page that gives more of a picture of your company culture. Much like roam, your LinkedIn profile will not be built in a day, even in under an hour. Take the time to do it right so that when you do start networking, the impression you make is one that somebody would want to do business with. Once your profile is all set, it's time to move on to the second P people. Like other social networks, LinkedIn gives you the ability to connect with friends, family, and even strangers who you share interests in. But while those shared interests on other sites are usually things like pets or food or comic books, you'll find your connections on LinkedIn should center around individuals who are somehow connected to your career, often former colleagues or professional peers, as well as professional and potential clients, mentors, and more. Don't just think of your network as a list of people you know. It's more like a web made up of everyone you're connected with and everyone they're connected with, and everyone that those people are connected with. The wider the web, the more likely you are to be able to catch opportunities. If you're brand new to LinkedIn, a great way to start building a network is by syncing the context you already have in your phone. LinkedIn will go through the phone's contacts and match them with the profiles of those users, then lets you send a connection request to all of those individuals. It will also import contacts from your email accounts like Gmail and Outlook. You may be absolutely shocked by how many people you actually know once this process is complete. If you're like most people, you probably already have several social media accounts already active, and there's definitely some overlap between your friends and followers on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, et cetera, and people you'd like to connect with on LinkedIn. Unfortunately, this is quite sad. None of these platforms will let you import contacts directly into LinkedIn. There's nothing stopping you from making a post asking your followers to find you on LinkedIn, and consider adding your LinkedIn URL to your bio. No matter where your initial contacts come from, odds are that many of them are people who you've lost touch with. Now's a good time to reconnect. Remember, networking isn't just about meeting new people. Most opportunities in business come from people you already know, so maintaining and occasionally refreshing those connections is a crucial part of networking. If you're requesting a LinkedIn connection with someone you haven't talked to in a while, take a moment to shoot them a personal note. Remind them of who you are and where you met to strike up a fresh conversation. Nonetheless, you'll never know where it will lead. Of course, at some point you're Gonna wanna use LinkedIn to make new connections with the hope of forging some sort of professional relationship. LinkedIn offers a variety of ways to identify people you don't already have in your network and invite them to connect. The first place to look is the My Network tab at the top of every LinkedIn page. On this page you'll find an endless bottomless list of people you may want to connect to, conveniently divided into categories like people you may know from school, people in your industry, people with your interest, and so on. I've been on LinkedIn for years, yet every time I check the My Network page, there are people I know who I know I haven't connected with on the site. You also want to connect with strangers. For that, I have one important tip for doing so effectively over Always include a personal note with your request. And that note should not be about you. After all, you spend all the time prepping your profile so the person you're messaging can see that you're cool. Before they'll do that, you need to convince them that connecting with you will benefit them. So phrase your message in a way that focuses on the recipient, and it doesn't have to be a hard sell. Maybe you're a fan of their posting on LinkedIn, so tell them so. Or maybe you want to share an article that you think they'd find interesting, or invite them to a webinar you're hosting, or just come right out and ask what you want if there's something specific the person can offer. The direct approach usually beats slowly lurking around the person you want to connect with. Of course, very few LinkedIn connections will resort in any sort of immediate benefit right away. Experts will tell you the key to networking is a consistent mix of quantity and quality. And while it's virtually impossible to maintain too many engaging one on one conversations, the LinkedIn timeline lets you converse with a lot of your connections at the same time. This is the third and final P posting. Most people post on LinkedIn when they have some sort of professional news to share, which is great, but the best networkers are the ones that use LinkedIn to initiate conversations that benefits the readers, not the writer. Want to see a great example? Here's a post made by a veteran music industry professional linking to an article about all the various parties that happen around the Coachella Music Festival that his network, that is Other music industry professionals might want to attend. You can also write original long form articles right on LinkedIn itself using the Articles tool. This is a great place to establish yourself as a thought leader in your field and share it directly with your professional peers without asking them to find you on another site. And when you're not striking up your own conversations, take time to read what others are posting on LinkedIn. Likes are good, but comments are even better, especially if you have something nice to contribute beyond Great work, pal. If you really want to get involved in some deep conversations on LinkedIn, try joining groups that relate to your professional field. These are a great place to meet new peers who could become your new contacts, and that's what networking is really all about. If you're ready to learn more about all the ways LinkedIn can help you succeed, now's a good time. Take HubSpot Academy's free online course LinkedIn for Business, or get more tips for optimizing your LinkedIn profile by checking out our entire video dedicated to the subject. You'll find links to both in the description. You can also follow HubSpot's extremely active LinkedIn channel. And since you've made it to the end of the video, go ahead and send me a personal connection request as well. Now, if you'll excuse me. All right, I'm going to go find the fourth P. I know it's out there. I think we can do it. Once I find it, I'll come back and I'll share it with you guys. I pinky promise. Oh, maybe that's what the fourth P is. Pinky promises. All right, my work here is done. I'll see you next time. Thanks for watching.

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