Mistakes that You Should Avoid While Networking on LinkedIn

Many of you have probably been wondering what it takes to become successful one day. Answer that question in 2 or 3 sentences is impossible. However, we can highlight the tips you will often get. 

People will primarily tell you that you need to find your passion and work hard on your talents. Indeed, these two tips are crucial, but they only represent the basics of the entire path. Becoming successful in your industry requires much more than that. One of the things you need to have in mind is the importance of networking. 

Networking matters a lot as you will manage to connect with people that are on the same mission as you. The individuals you will connect with can be your potential employers, but they can also be your partners in case you decide to become an entrepreneur. Even if you do not establish a collaboration, it is always good to have people with ambitions around you. They will certainly be some form of motivation and, who knows, they may help you reach your goal one day. 

Networking via social media is the most popular method that people use. Without any doubt, you can try to do that on Facebook, Instagram, or even TikTok. However, if you are truly focused on your career or business improvement, then LinkedIn is the right place to look for opportunities. 

Unfortunately, things are not as easy as they seem. It won’t be enough to send a request and become a member of some network. You will have to get out of the box and include a sense of creativity when doing that. 

Unfortunately, it seems that people are making some common mistakes. That is the reason why we decided to write down all the mistakes that you should avoid while networking on LinkedIn. The tips below will tell you which details deserve more attention and require improvement as they can be the main reason why you can’t network properly with other professionals. Let’s get started! 

Try Not to Sound Too Salesy

Looking for individuals that you want to network with isn’t difficult. You only have to use the filters and highlight the industry, get an idea of the keywords that you want to use, etc. However, when you find those individuals, it is not the point to be too salesy or needy. Instead of that, you need to find the best possible way to send a message to those individuals and somehow grab their attention. 

Instead of that, you need to show that you really deserve to become a member of some group. Even if the individuals you connect with do not buy anything from you, your SSI (social selling score) will boost. Logically, the better SSI is, the chances you will reach a wider audience becomes bigger and bigger. 

Closely released a blog that describes how you can network on LinkedIN with other professionals without sounding salesy. It may be good to check out their pieces of advice after reading this article and learn something new. 

Don’t Try to Make Useless Networks

Here comes another thing that all individuals need to have in mind. We understand your desire to build a network or at least boost the number of connections that you have. You will see a bunch of people trying to improvize things that way. Unfortunately, doing that is actually a big mistake. 

As a rule of thumb, quantity is always going to be more important than quantity. It is much better to connect with 100 appropriate individuals than having 10 000 connections that will not exchange good information with you. More precisely, you will never improve your knowledge, career, and business. 

Let’s imagine that you are a PHP developer. In that case, why would you add people from the sports industry? Instead of that, it would be much better to add developers that can potentially teach you something new or become your partners one day. 

Inviting People to a Network without Context Is Bad

Let’s imagine that you understand there is no reason to add people from a wide range of professions. However, when you send invites to relevant professionals, you still do not get the response that you expected. The reason why you experienced that scenario is simple – your invites are without messaging and context.

Keep in mind that LinkedIn attracted thousands of new users every single day. The professionals that can be partners or mentors receive a bunch of events every single day. More precisely, they do not even see your request; they will see the number of invites they got. So, how on earth do you plan to grab their attention without messaging them? 

The message you send needs to be thrilling and professional. It needs to be short, but it also needs to explain the reasons why you would want to connect with them. Once again, do not be too salesy as the message you send is not the one that will convince them to add you to their network. However, the message will convince them to check out your profile and see who you are. 

Instead of saying “Hello, I would like to add you to my network”, add more details about yourself and the reasons why you decided on that move. That will work much better. 

Forget about Sharing Old Information/Content

Last but not least mistake that people are making is sharing old information through news, blog posts, and articles. The person you plan to connect with will not be interested to network with someone who shares trends from the previous months. Instead of that, they want to see something fresh that can potentially be valuable for their knowledge. 

On the other hand, sharing copied content is also a big mistake. People can easily find out if you copied someone else’s content, especially those that are experts in a particular industry. Because of that, you will look unprofessional which will ensure a negative response from other people. 

Final Thought

These four mistakes are the most common ones that people make. Because of that, they do not manage to establish appropriate networks. Instead of deciding to add irrelevant people to your network, it is much better to fix these mistakes and ensure success. One day, you may find people that are on the same path as you and start a business together with someone thanks to this incredible social media network.