In the previous article you have already read that the first phase to build the foundation of your LinkedIn network is uploading the contacts from your address book and how to do that.

In this article we continue with phase 2 and 3.

Phase 2: A Second Layer for your Network.

While you are waiting for people to accept the invitations you have sent in phase 1, you can add more people to your network. Again we first focus on the people who are already on LinkedIn because they will be more open to accept your invitation.

We will use the tools LinkedIn provides for retrieving colleagues and classmates. Since LinkedIn works with the information in your Profile it is important that you have filled in the companies you have worked for and the schools and universities you went to.

Let’s start with current and past colleagues.

1. Look for current and past colleagues. You can do this via the green “Add Connections” button in the menu on the left on every page and then click on the “Colleagues” tab.
You will see all the companies that you have listed yourself in your Profile. You will also see how many people from each company are already LinkedIn members.
2. Click on a company you are working for or have worked for. You will get a list of people you might know. Select the people you actually know.
3. Write a personal message to them if you are going to invite them one by one or write a semi-personal message like the one in step 3 of phase 1.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for every company.

In this way your network grows with current and past colleagues.

Now we are going to do the same for the people you studied with (or are studying with). While you might have fewer contacts or current interests on a professional or personal level with them, old classmates might be very valuable for your network. Remember the fundamental principle of the weak ties and the importance of a diverse network.

1. Look for classmates. You can do this via the green “Add Connections” button in the menu on the left on every page and then click on the “Classmates” tab.
You will see all the schools that you have listed yourself in your Profile.
2. Click on a school. You will get a list of people you might know. Select the people you actually know. You can only select one classmate at the time.
3. Write a personal message to them.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for every classmate of that same school.
5. Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 for every school you studied at.

In this way your network grows with current and past classmates.

Phase 3: The Third Layer of your Network

The next step you can take is inviting people you know, but who are not on LinkedIn. Now it is very important to avoid the standard invitation message. Why? Because these people might never have heard of LinkedIn. When they get an email from the LinkedIn mail server with an impersonal message from you they might think it is SPAM and delete the message. And that’s not the action you want them to take!

How do we do this?

Again we are going to use the tools LinkedIn provides.

Since you already imported your Outlook or Webmail address book in phase 1 (see previous article), we are going to start from there.

1. Go to the “Imported Contacts” under “Contacts”.
2. Select the people you want to invite.
3. Write a personal message to them if you want to invite them one by one or write a semi-personal message if you want to invite a group of people at once.
First check “Add a personal note to your invitation”. Then replace the standard “Hi, I’d like to add you to my network” message with a personal or semi-personal one like in phase 1.

To your success !

Jan

Jan Vermeiren, founder of Networking Coach

PS: more tips can be found in the Amazon Best Seller "How to REALLY use LinkedIn".