So you already understand the value of LinkedIn connections and you know that your search results are directly tied to your connections and your connections contacts as well.

So here are three quick tips to grow your network fast.

1. Invite your current Contacts from your contact manager.  Be sure to export them into no more than contacts of 500 at a time.  LinkedIn only allows you to invite 500 people at a time.  CSV files are the best format for this.

2.        List open networker buzz words in your profile to encourage connection invites. Such as LION, OpenNetworker, or Toplinked.  Many networkers often search for people who have this listed in their profile in order to send you connection invites.  Additionally make sure your email address is listed in your contact settings.

3.       Join Opennetworker and/ or Toplinked free subscriptions and even the paid subscription to grow your network by thousands in less than a year.

What are some other strategies you currently use to grow your network?  We welcome your thoughts.

So what makes a highly successful Linkedin member? Here is what I have discovered as not only habits, but also "secrets" of the treasure chest on Linkedin.

1. They invest their time strategically by putting fresh content on Linkedin when it’s the best time to do so. Let me explain, for me weekends are times to prepare Linkedin content, but as you will notice most collaboration does not take place on weekends. So hold the great Q/A’s, the awesome discussion topics, or the great status updates until Monday and never late Friday. Think about what your audience is doing and be strategic.

2. They use their status update to post something new every 24 to 48 hours and 80% of those updates include a link that gives a call to action. Such as signing up for your next webinar, promotions to visit your blog, or visiting your corporate website etc…

3. They answer target specific questions that are related to their target market. This is great exposure for your business that Linkedin Pros are doing everyday!

4. They change their Picture profile every two months. This creates dialogue and interaction with your network. This is another way to keep your brand in front of everyone. Pictures are worth a thousand _ _ _ _ _ (fill in the blank)

5. They answer every Linkedin email/inmail. Maybe not timely, but they never waste an opportunity!

6. They post their company events on the events application provided by Linkedin and use this as a way to measure interest and involvement for such things as conferences, webinars, or seminars.  The events application has only been recently used by Linkedin Elite, but many are beginning to wise up to its amazing potential.

7. These highly successful members have identified their target markets on Linkedin, their goals on Linkedin, and are executing their plan every single work day. Social Media can be measured, but most don’t understand how to begin measuring their Social Media efforts because they have never identified their goals for using the Linkedin space. Once you have identified your goals then you can build a measurable matrix to anaylize your efforts. I hope you enjoyed these highlights that will help in your Linkedin efforts.

Be sure to grab our Complimentary guide to getting started in Social Media which includes 50 Twitter Power Tips & Social Media Updates. 

 So what drives me to Lie, Cheat, & Steal? It’s Linkedin I tell ya! At least that’s what I tell my wife. All kidding aside here  is why I Lie, Cheat, & Steal. I originally posted this article in July 2009 and decided to republish now.

 Lie: I lie in bed often thinking of ways to post meaningful group discussions with killer headlines. Why? Because I know when I do that my brand gets tremendous exposure and the personal messages start flying from the over 70 Millions members on Linkedin!

Cheat: During the week I will cheat every available second to some how connect or collaborate on Linkedin so my brand continually stays in front of my network and the 170 industries represented on Linkedin!

Steal: Every single time I see a great invite response, method of posting questions, great headlines on discussions, or a cool status update. My first question is, “how can I steal that and make it work for me and my brand?” after all executives from all Fortune 500 companies are on Linkedin potentially watching or observing members for their next offer of employment they want to extend!

Staying involved and aware of best practices on Linkedin can result in tremendous rewards and I think thats what drives me to Lie, Cheat, & Steal.

What do you think?

How Much Time Do you need to spend on Linkedin per day?

Many business professionals are asking. How much time do I need to allocate to Linkedin to see some results for my business or company? Really what people are asking for are some solid “measurables” to see the results of their efforts.

Here is the short answer, I spend between 1 to 2 hours per day utilizing Linkedin.

Here is the longer answer, between responding to invites, posting questions, answering questions on groups and the Q/A board, along with managing my groups I spend between 1 and 2 hours per day on Linkedin. I take the time to respond to every single invite I receive, but I have an easy system to do this. See my article on “Why you should NOT accept multiple invitations as once”, I explain in detail how to respond to every single invite, its easy. Next, I try to participate as much as possible in the groups I have joined. Now I haven’t joined just any group, I have been target specific on which ones I join. Next, I answer questions on Linkedin. The reasons I spend time doing this are too many to list in this article. You can see some of my other post to learn more.

The Measurables: All of this time spent drives thousands of targeted visitors to my website every week. Notice I said targeted? Next I receive numerous inquiries every week specific to my business as a result of my efforts. Then I would be remiss not to mention the solid contacts I have found via Linkedin when doing Business Development targeting fortune 500 companies.

What would be your measureables? Well you would have to decide, but I would suggest to monitor increased web traffic, increased leads, and watch or note how well your brand advocacy is going on Linkedin.

I recently finished an eBook called “Fast Start Guide to Linkedin Success” in which I explain in detail the path to Success on Linkedin.

Here is a solid slide presentation that shows the kind of exposure and target audience you can achieve through Linkedin. 

So how much time should you allocate to Linkedin per day?  Thats up to you, after reading the articles here and viewing the slideshow.  Do you see the ”value” of spending time on Linkedin now? 

Best Regards,

Randy Schrum

*want to grow your Linkedin connections fast click here to learn more

Building A Large Network Quickly

So you want to build a large network and do it fast. Building a large network is more of a formula than it is one or two easy steps. Once you have all the proper additives then you can see great results. I will share with you the additives I have used that have resulted in a great “Formula For Success”.

1. In your participation in any discussion or answer/ question be sure to leave a signature “that is a call to action”, it cannot be a straight out focal point of the post, but more of a soft plug. Drive them to your profile, see my recent post on “Your Profile is Your Resume”, as this is critical to growing your connections quickly as well. One signature idea is to sign off with your name and simply “Invites Welcomed”
2. Be sure to participate in all “open invites here” discussions in groups, just simply post your invite email address so open networkers can invite you.
3. Be sure to put in your profile or headline that you’re an open networker / toplinked.com member.
4. Join Toplinkedin/ OpenNetworker (by clicking here), as not only a free member, but also as a paying member to receive the full benefits to grow your network fast!  You can read more about this hybrid way of building connections at the Success Store page.
5. Refer to my post on “How to load a CSV file” if you have questions on loading toplinked/ OpenNetworker lists.
6. Respond to every single invite, refer to my recent post on “Do NOT respond in Mass to invitations”, this is critical to getting your message out.
7. Comb groups for those who provide an email address and identify themselves as open networkers and invite them.
8. Develop a standard invite response that has 2-3 bullet points that drive you or your brand…Just save it in a word document so you can copy and paste into the response. I keep my document open all day and just copy and paste as the invites come in.
9. Be active! Read my report at www.theaggressivenetworker.com on “Setting a 24 hour perimeter” around your account! This is critical as well.

Your Friend in Success

Randy Schrum

Follow my sweet tweets for more FREE tips! www.twitter.com/randyschrum

*Now available Randy’s “Fast Start Guide to Linkedin Success” eBook click here to learn more

The Aggressive Twitter…Why Twitter?
Twitter allows you to ping updates to all of your “followers”,
Great tool to tell, what your doing, suggest articles to read i.e. “your articles/ blogging”, make recommendations, etc…
You do this in short phrases of 140 characters or less. So sizzle keywords are critical! But the result can drive massive amounts of organic traffic to you or your “brand”.
The Cost for this? FREE! Twitter is the newest way to viral market yourself to the top!

Building followers is critical to seeing results with twitter, so be sure to provide a link to you in your signatures of communication or postings. One great tool that can help get a large number of followers quick is through Open Networker click here for $10 a month to be on a collaborative open invite/ followers list. This service also works with Linkedin, Facebook, and many more for no additional cost.

Get Sweet Tweets from me at www.twitter.com/randyschrum  

To learn how to get started with Twitting Aggressively then go to my Twitter Tutorial here.

From the Sweetest Tweeter on Twitter

Randy- Tweet Out…
www.twitter.com/randyschrum  

Why Twitter? Here is a good reason….this article shows that 21st Century Networking is happening online.  Are you?

Click Here to learn more