I eclipsed the 500 connection mark on LinkedIn yesterday. It was a seminal moment in my social media development–a crowning achievement, really. You see, once you get to 500 connections on LinkedIn, your “Connections” status on your profile appears as “500+”–as in, once you get to 500, you are so f-ing connected that LinkedIn doesn’t even bother keeping track anymore. You gain entrance into an elite club of executive connectedness that is destined to change your life forever.
Here are three solid food for naught reasons for aspiring to become LinkedIn Royalty:
- You now have proof–on the Internets–that you have so many contacts that you don’t need to make any new ones. If there were ever a good reason to be connected to a lot of people, it would be to not have to become connected to anymore new people.
- People find other people who have 500+ connections on LinkedIn irresistibly attractive. On Monday morning–when I only had 498 connections–I was alone, dejected, with no prospects and no future. Now that I’m at 500+, my phone is ringing off the hook and women left and right are asking me to become their baby daddy.
- As a 500+er, you get to get together once a year with other hyper-connected, super-rich people in Davos to set global economic and monetary policy. This way we ensure that we remain the top 1% of the population in control of 99% of the world’s resources, while the remaining 99% continue fighting each other for scraps and suffer through the Swine Flu…
Kidding aside, there are many very good, food-for-thought reasons to build out your LinkedIn profile and presence. Here are a few of them:
- 500+ shows people that you have executive mojo; that you’re a guy or gal who introduces themselves to people at a conference and forges serious relationships which turn into bottom line dollars and cents for the company you represent.
- You have a massive online Rolodex that is updated in perpetuity = a bat phone to reach hundreds of people–and quickly–who have professional relevance to your life.
- As your participation in LinkedIn and your network grows, your personal brand becomes exposed to a huge number of new people who can actually help your career. (As opposed to, say, Facebook, where you are more likely to expose your latest tattoo or facial-hair debacle to people that you used to hang out with 20 years ago).
Want to become a LinkedIn King and reap the rewards? Here are a few tips, in no particular order:
- Upload and invite all the contacts you have in your existing email address books (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.)
- Send an invitation to connect on LinkedIn to everyone you ever meet–professionally and personally–right after you meet them. Add a friendly personal greeting above the standard “I’d like to add you to my blah, blah, blah”.
- Fill out your personal profile to completion. And make it TIGHT. Spell check it, have your friends look at it, look at the profile you most admire and make yours even better. This is your CV–on steroids. Any questions?
- Join every Group that you do (or should) belong to (professional, academic, hobbies, anything…)
- Update your status at least once a week with a link to something that you’ve recently worked on/accomplished.
- Solicit and post a few strong recommendations from people who know you, like you, and can put together a decent sentence. Do NOT post every single recommendation you receive — especially if it comes across flat and/or is poorly written.
- Post your picture, and don’t forget to smile. A picture tells a thousand words — post one that lets your intelligent, confident and fun-loving personality shine through. (This one might sound sappy, but I happen to believe in humanizing ourselves online).
Look, I know everyone is all gaga over Twitter, Facebook and Google Wave these days, but LinkedIn should not be ignored (especially if you’re, like, you know, a real-life grown up). So, good luck building out your LinkedIn network and let me know how it goes. I hope to see you in the land of chocolate, tax-evasion and skiing real soon.
Update: Per comments from @emailkarma, please take a second to participate in this one-question, very scientific poll:
Good article but I’d caution the advice on inviting your entire network… I know lots of people that would be upset for inviting them to a social network (any of them not just LinkedIn).
One other thing – Is 500+ really a big deal? Honestly I passed 500 and didn’t even notice?!
MV
@emailkarma
Thanks for leaving a comment Matt… I agree re: inviting your entire network, you should be selective; but I also think that because it’s a professional network, LinkedIn is much less personal than other social networking sites like Facebook, and it is much less intrusive from a privacy perspective to be invited to connect on LinkedIn vs. Facebook (they are analogous to peoples’ online public vs private spheres, respectively)…
Re: 500+ being a big deal… well, we ain’t all high rollers like you, dawg
… Kidding aside, not sure what others’ experiences have been, but it seemed that getting from 100 – 450 was fast and furious once I finally took LinkedIn as seriously as I should have, but the last 50 came in more slowly/on a one-off basis… A recent study re: Twitter showed that a tiny fraction have 500+ followers, and I bet LinkedIn is similar *could be wrong, wouldn’t be the first or last time!
As a long time member of the 500+ club, I can’t believe we let you in.
You mean to tell me that all those people from your high school graduating class remembered you and actually accepted your LinkedIn invitation?
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Jordan Cohen is a pretty common name. Who knows whose invitation those people thought they were accepting.
You make a good point Ron – having a name like Jordan Cohen comes in handy in the online social networking world. Not just on LinkedIn – it also happens to be one of the 4 key steps for becoming a Twitter Mad Man.
So I guess this means you now have executive mojo?
Congrats!
One thing to consider, as with all social networks (although LinkedIn has more emphasis on personal connections IMHO), is whether attaining 500+ means you’ve watered down your network. Are you inviting people randomly? Accepting any invites that come through? Just be smart about growing your network on there b/c it’s a reflection of who you are and your reach as a professional.
Also, sales people love to poach your connections lists.
Thanks for leaving a comment Chris. You make another good point here — there are indeed people who will try to spam you on LinkedIn. I don’t accept people into my network without legitimately knowing them, and have rejected a bunch of bizarre ones. That said, there are a handful of people I didn’t know that reached out to me via direct message with a personal explanation for why they’d like to connect — and I have accepted them if it makes sense.
Re: the sales poaching — yup, that’s something else people should consider. Some people set their connections to “private”, so that only people within their network could get at their contacts, but even that doesn’t entirely protect you from something like that happening (ie, your former colleague from sales who’s still a good guy you want to keep in touch with but is now working for the competition). I think most people keep their connections public and the benefits of doing so outweigh the negatives…