LinkedIn is similar to other social media networks in that the main goal is to connect with others.   When you first sign up, you’ll be given the opportunity to connect LinkedIn with your email addresses. If you are like me you skipped this step, but you can always go back and do it later. You can enter your email in the system under My Network, Add Connections.

You can also find Alumni and see “people you may know”. In addition, there are many ways to expand your connections on LinkedIn.

The goal is to increase your connections.

Tips for Connecting

Here are a few tips to help you connect with more people on LinkedIn:

• Start Where You Are – Even if some of the connections you have right now are just your family and friends, that’s okay. Just start with what you have. As you are noticed, “found,” and recommended, your connections will grow accordingly.  It is sort of amazing how quickly your network will expand.

• Send Invites – LinkedIn gives you the ability to invite people who are in your email contact list automatically. This is a good way to get started.  But don’t just invite everyone.  Think about who you want to be connected to on LinkedIn.

• Ask for Introductions – Ask existing connections to introduce you to potential clients. There is a way to do that via LinkedIn between connections. You and the person you’re being introduced to have to be 1st-degree connections for this process to work. Avoid sending invites to people that you don’t know.

• Be More Active – Commit to being more active on LinkedIn. Most people actually don’t use LinkedIn to the capacity that it can be used. You want to at least sign in once a day and be active.   Do something such as make a comment on a discussion in a group, start a new discussion in a group, post an update a few times a week and publish a post monthly. It’s up to you what schedule you use, but being more active, yet also valuable and willing to help others (don’t be active just to be active) you’ll end up getting more connections due to people liking what they see.

• Promote Your LinkedIn Page – Anyplace you can add your LinkedIn URL is a good place to add it, including your email signature. You want to invite people to connect with you on a regular basis. You can do this also within Facebook Groups, on a blog post, or in another manner as long as you know the person you’re connecting to in some way you’ll be able to build your connections. You don’t have to really know them, just know “of” them.

• Build Trust – Building relationships also involves building trust. Always do what you say you will do. Post accurate information and most importantly, be yourself. Fake just doesn’t cut it when you’re trying to build trust. You’ll get further, be happier, and make more connections when people like and trust the real you.

The most important thing to remember about LinkedIn is that it’s very professional. As long as you are honest, professional, keep an updated and complete profile and are active on the network you’ll make lots of connections.

Take a few minutes now to go and log into your LinkedIn account and make a few connections.