How to Get 500+ Connections on Linkedin

Tutorial for Dramatically Increasing Your LinkedIn Connections

The first step to getting over 500 relevant connections on Linkedin is to get 100+ highly relevant connections.  We have been discussing that over the past 4 posts on the days just proceeding this one.  It is also very important to have a great profile and several recommendations before you start inviting the world.  You don't want to open the doors to your restaurant before you've set up the menus. 

Once you have a bunch of your best possible connections set up, go to their list of connections.  Start by going to the contacts tab on the home page.  Pull down the menu and select connections.  This will give you a page that looks like this.  You will note that each person (obscured to protect the innocent) has a number to the right that tells how many connections they have.

Now evaluate the individuals as you proceed down the list.  Are they likely to have a bunch of folks who know you, get you, and can help you?  Or maybe you can help them.  You might want to concentrate on those with large followings as they are probably more naturally networkers and also are active on Linkedin.  If you feel that you want to see a person's connections, click on that persons name and you will get a detail shot about them off to the right of the list that looks like this:

Now you will see a spot where it indicates their total connections again.  This time it is a link to their connections.  Click on that link and you will get a page that looks like this (without the red blocks that are obscuring the names, of course):

From here you can just click on connect if you know them and hope they will accept your invitation.  If you're a little less clear on who they are, you can click on the name and see their profile.  You can, if you like, send an invitation to complete strangers, but there is a chance they will answer the invitation with "I don't know them."  If you get too many of these, you may get a warning from Linked in. 

You can also ask your friend to introduce you by clicking onto their profile and using the "send inmail tab."

Generally I have found that even when I am inviting folks who may or may not know me, I get about 66% connecting.  If you only send invitations to those who truly know you, the percent goes up to a much higher level. 

Once you have gone through your entire list in this fashion, you will likely be close to or over 500.  If you still want more, you can now start checking out the list of those who you have added until you reach the magic number of 500.

Did You Miss?

This series of articles on Setting Up LinkedIn began with a recommendation that you create a great LinkedIn profile first.  This way each new invitation that you send out will potentially review your profile and may decide to do business with you.