LinkedIn is one of the most frequently used social networking platforms with over 1 billion users in 2024. The reason why we all want to be on LinkedIn is to make connections and grow out LinkedIn network.
However, don’t confuse followers with connections. In LinkedIn, having a 1st degree connection means you can directly message that person. And the more connections you have, LinkedIn rewards you by showing your profile in relevant searches.
But, growing your LinkedIn network with quality connections takes time and some strategic approach. Because you don’t want to connect with any random person.
In this post, we’ll talk about how you can get your first 500 connections fast on LinkedIn! This post will also work if you’re using LinkedIn for a while and now want to increase your connections.
Let’s start.
Table of Contents
How to grow LinkedIn network fast and get 500+ connections
#1 Optimize your LinkedIn profile
This is the most important step as you need to make sure that your profile looks professional before you start sending those connection requests. It’s important to make a great first impression.
Profile Picture: Your profile picture is the first thing that someone sees when they land on your profile. Avoid pictures with your pet or family here. A clear and well-lit picture of yours, preferably with a clean background, is good. Should look somewhat professional. But that doesn’t mean you cannot smile!
Banner Image: This is not compulsory but it’s nice to have. Makes your profile look more professional. Nothing too fancy. You can highlight your core skills here. It’s easy to make one on Canva.
Headline: Next the headline. This is a tricky part as most people either overdo it or don’t mention the most important thing about their career. So here’s a formula you can use to write your profile headline.
[What you do/designation] + [Who do you help/your current company] + [One or two of your notable achievements]
About/Summary: People don’t pay much attention to the summary or the about section but it’s great for your profile helping you to show up in relevant searches in LinkedIn. Recruiters actually read your about section to get a feel of your personality.
We have an entire post filled with templates and examples for types of professions, to help you write the perfect LinkedIn summary and wow your recruiters! Here’s the link to the post.
Work experience: Always keep this section updated and it’s better if you can add a little description in each of your experiences. Write about what results you got or what you’re responsible for in that company.
Add certificates and recommendations: Completed a course? LinkedIn lets you add those in this section. Also ask your previous colleagues and boss to leave recommendations on your profile. All these sections complete your profile and LinkedIn rewards these profiles by showing up in search results.
#2 Send connection requests with a message
If you want to grow your LinkedIn network obviously you need to send connection requests. Don’t just wait for people to come to you. The best way to start is to start sending connection requests to people who are in the same industry or similar roles.
You have a common ground with the other person and it increases the chances of getting your request accepted. Also, don’t forget to include an invitation note while sending connection requests.
Free LinkedIn accounts can send only 5 invitations per month but premium has more options. While writing connection request messages, make sure to personalize it. Generic messages mostly get ignored.
#3 Regularly post content
Another important factor that gets you more connection requests is by posting quality content on LinkedIn regularly. Coming up with good content ideas, writing and publishing is a whole different topic to talk about.
The type of content you make can help you get quality connections which ultimately help you grow your LinkedIn network.
So, if you want to consistently post and get results from it, you can check out TRIKL which helps you to create content for LinkedIn in just a few minutes.
Here’s a video that teaches you how to create content using TRIKL.
#4 Attend webinars or online events
Attending online webinars and virtual events also helps you to find relevant people to connect with on LinkedIn. There are lots of online events that happen in LinkedIn itself. So, if you attend those, you’ll find a bunch of like-minded people in your industry to network with on LinkedIn.
For example, if you’re into marketing then there are events conducted by different marketing influencers on LinkedIn for free which you can attend.
#5 Join groups
Joining niche groups exposes you to a group of people you’d definitely want to connect with. Type in the search bar of LinkedIn your industry keyword and filter out the groups. You’ll receive many options to join.
How TRIKL helps you get 500+ connections
If you don’t want to D-I-Y LinkedIn content creation, we have the perfect tool to help you do exactly that. Here’s how TRIKL can help you:
- Generate content ideas for the entire month
- Write content on those ideas
- Choose from templates, AI image generator and carousel maker
- Schedule content for months in advance
- Analyse your content performance each month to improve
Sign up here to try out TRIKL for free! No credit card required.
How many LinkedIn connections can I make in a day?
You can send approximately 20 connection requests daily and 100 weekly on LinkedIn.
By enhancing your Social Selling Index (SSI) Score, you may be able to increase that limit to 200 requests per week.
What does 1st, 2nd and 3rd+ mean on LinkedIn?
1st connection is people with whom you are connected directly. 2nd are people who are connected with your 1st connections but not with you directly. And 3rd+ connection means those people with whom you don’t share any mutual connections.
How to get LinkedIn followers organically?
Posting quality content, engaging with other members and sending more connection requests helps you to get LinkedIn followers organically.
Is 1000 connections good on LinkedIn?
If you have relevant and quality connections then having 1000 connections is good.
