The milestone is symbolic but testifies to the importance taken by LinkedIn in recent years in the professional world in France: at the end of November the social network crossed the bar of 25 million users in France, up 20% on the last two years. Proof that the American platform has become essential, 80% of French workers are now registered. A breeding ground of users from which it is necessary to know how to draw the advantages. When you arrive on LinkedIn, it is therefore important to know how to build a good network, especially when you are looking for a job.
Dare to reach out to people, don’t add anyone
The key is, as so often in everyday life, not to be afraid to approach people. “Usually, there is a blockage. There are several ways to contact a person: either you have already met them somewhere, at a trade show for example or in a professional setting. At that point, you really have to write a personalized message. If you don’t know her, you have to take an interest in her and ask yourself the right questions: do her posts interest me? Can I answer them? What do we have in common? , explains Emmanuelle Petiau, trainer on LinkedIn.
We do not contact a person on LinkedIn as we contact a person by email and above all, we do not add just anyone. “There are important benchmarks: targeting people who have common or concomitant activities. The territory can also be important. You build your network with people with whom you will be dealing, but also decision-makers, influencers, important people who will lead us to the right person”, explains Grégory Mancel, consultant for SMEs and VSEs and LinkedIn specialist.
A common mistake is to want to immediately get something from the person you are adding, such as a contact or a recommendation. However, patience is essential first. “If the targeted people feel that you want to sell them something, they will never accept your request. If they do not know you, they will wonder what you want from them. Once the person has accepted your request for addition, if you ask her for something, she will take you away right away. It’s strategy, that’s all the subtlety. You shouldn’t go headlong.”
Maintain your network
Each LinkedIn member has the ability to add up to 30,000 Level 1 people, that is “people you are directly connected to, because you accepted their invitation or because they accepted yours”. If this limit is reached, the user can follow other people without adding them. Before jumping into the deep end, it is essential to complete your profile and make it attractive. “You have to do things in order: the window must be beautiful and attractive before going on the hunt. Once you have optimized your profile, you will be credible and you can start making requests”, believes Grégory Mancel.
When we spot a person to add, “the first thing to do is to go and see the profile to detect elements that make sense and that prove that we will be able to work together. We can detect details that we will to be able to integrate into a personalized message”, continues Grégory Mancel. Contextualizing each addition message is essential: “When we put context, we temporalize, we make ourselves more human, this makes it possible to counterbalance all the people who make massive additions”.
Once the network is firmly established, the hardest part begins: you have to become active with this network and maintain it. “The idea is to stay in touch over the long term and not hesitate to contact this network if you need a recommendation or a connection,” explains Esther Ohayon, communications director and career expert at LinkedIn. France. Do not hesitate to clean up your contacts. “If you do not create a link with your network, it is useless, says Emmanuel Petiau. I remove about 50 people from my network per week”. The message is clear: quantity absolutely does not equal quality.