Some people can’t help to roll their eyes and cringe a little every time they hear the word “networking”. However, building ties with others is a fundamental part of our human existence. We are interdependent creatures by nature, and professional networking isn’t any different. 

Thankfully, nowadays you don’t need to be constantly attending events and conferences to get your networking engine going. Thanks to platforms like LinkedIn you can make a great number of connections from the comfort of your couch, not just in your area, but also globally. 

Investing some of your time in doing online networking is a significantly low-maintenance effort that can pay-off incredibly well and help further your career. You never know which meaningful relationships you can build when connecting with experts and recruiters online! 

In fact, professional networking is precisely the fundamental pillar around which LinkedIn revolves, so I’ve put together a few simple tips and steps you can follow in order to broaden your network and deepen your ties online.

Be active

The main motto you should be following for a fruitful LinkedIn networking strategy is quite simple: Be active. This means spending time on the platform engaging, interacting, and even sharing or producing your own content. The more active you are, the better the chances of appearing in more people’s radars. On that note, you don’t want to appear on just anyone’s radar. You want to appear on the radar of professionals and experts in the field and companies you want to work for. Those are the people you should try to be seen by. And that, my dear job hunter, involves some proactive online networking. So on that note, here’s my next tip: 

Reach out and connect

The contacts you make on Linkedin are called ‘Connections’ and not ‘Friends’ for a reason. You don’t need to have any sort of previous relationship with your LinkedIn contacts. In fact, people base their connections in professional interest. So don’t be afraid to start sending connection requests around, just don’t do it blindly. Make sure they are focused and based on the goal you want to achieve: new job opportunities. 

Try to aim for a quality contact base that is made up of professionals who can help you achieve your goals, or with whom you share mutual interests. It’s all about mutually beneficial relationships. 

If you don’t know the person directly, you can always add a personalized note when sending connection requests, introducing yourself, or explaining why you’d like to connect. This way you won’t come across like some random going on a connection spree trying to up your numbers. Similarly, when you receive and accept a connection yourself, don’t be afraid to start a conversation and send a short message if it’s an interesting connection that you can learn something from or serves your goal. 

Have a voice, start conversations and provide value

Once your connections have accepted your request, like, share, and interact with their content. But even better, don’t just sit back and let others be the only ones posting awesome and insightful content. Instead, be a content creator yourself. You should make the effort of presenting yourself as an expert in your industry as well, or at least in a few topics you are highly passionate about. 

You don’t necessarily have to publish lengthy articles in order to do that, you can start by creating short informative posts, sharing articles that you’ve recently read and found insightful adding your take on the matter, or if you’re feeling bold, why not publish your own article?

Bonus tip: If you have recently applied for a position in a company, a great idea to get noticed is to check out the company page feed and share one of their posts. Pick one that resonates with you and share it on your own page adding your opinion or take on the matter, or maybe asking a question to start a discussion. By doing this, your name will appear in their notifications, which increases the chances of them being curious about you and landing on your profile page. 

In addition, if you have indicated somewhere on your headline that you are: ‘looking for a challenging opportunity in [whatever job position]’ they might be prone to reach out to you or at least go searching for your CV (which might have gotten lost in their big pile of applications). I am actually sharing this out of personal experience. An applicant did it and I got curious. Who knows, maybe other recruiters will be tempted to take a peek at your profile too.