How to Network Effectively & Build Your Own Successful Brand on LinkedIn
By: Nick Werner
To start off with, I wanted to share who I am and why I believe that I can provide value to individuals looking to learn how to network effectively and to build a successful brand for themselves.
DISCLAIMER: Even if you follow everything in this article you may still not see the same success as I have but I guarantee that you will at least have learned a valuable skill that will help you in your career. Also, I am not an expert on this topic nor am I claiming to be so feel free to do your own research as well.
I am currently an Application Security Engineer & Penetration Tester so I am a part of the Cybersecurity industry. All industries are different but I believe that the things that I talk about in this article can apply to any industry. I have just over 4000 connections at the moment and I post anywhere from 1–3 times per week on LinkedIn. Here are 6 of my most recent posts:
Note: I am just trying to show how much interaction you can have on your posts if you take the time to follow some or all of the advice that I am providing in this article.
So now the question that I’m sure you’re all wondering.. Why do you want to increase your network and build your own brand? Simply put, increasing your network and building your own brand will allow you to advance your career more easily than those who do not. Think about it this way, if a hiring manager is looking to hire a new person for their team, do you think that they will choose a stranger who they know nothing about, besides what is said on their resume or do you think that they will choose the person who they know and already believe would be a good fit for their team? They’ll most likely choose the latter and it makes sense why they would! Now, I’m going to share my progression since I started my journey 4 months ago!
Here are my first two posts from 4 months ago when I first started trying to build my network and personal brand. At the time I had just over 500 connections:
As you can see, I’ve come a long way in just 4 months. If you take the time to look over these posts as well you can see that I am putting up original content that is helpful and interesting and not simply reposting someone else’s content. Coming up with your own original posts is time consuming but it is well worth the effort in my opinion.
Just so you can see my progression, here is from 3 months ago:
(Notice the amount of likes, comments, and views)
2 months ago:
1 month ago:
Now:
As you can see, your posts can consistently grow every month if you stay consistent and continuously post interesting content. And no I did not cherry pick these posts. If you want to see for yourself please feel free to view my profile on LinkedIn, click on Activity, and click Posts. There you can see the progression post by post.
Next, I’m going to share how I increased my network and built my own successful brand on LinkedIn with 10 tips and recommendations that I would give to others looking to accomplish the same goal!
1. Make an original post at least 2–3 times per week (don’t just share other people’s content or repost an article).
2. Make at least 4–5 meaningful interactions on other’s post per week (interacting with people who have a large amount of followers in your industry could help you to get more exposure).
3. Max out your connection requests per week with people who are in your industry.
4. Find people who are currently working in the position that you want to be in and send them a message asking them how they achieved that position (I’ve found that most people are super willing to share).
5. Once you’ve connected with someone possibly send them a message thanking them for connecting!
6. Make sure that you respond to every direct message that you get (besides spam of course).
7. Write articles and blog posts about your experiences and things that would be beneficial to the community that you are wanting to be a part of.
8. DO NOT MESSAGE PEOPLE & ASK THEM FOR A JOB! Most people are not in a position to hire you for a job and if they were, they probably would not recommend someone who they do not know. Simply share your knowledge and experience and people will come to you about jobs eventually.
9. Be kind and always willing to help. Nobody wants to support or interact with people who are rude(I think this is fairly obvious but I still sometimes see it so that’s why I mention it).
10. Be well intentioned when posting and building your network. Do not do it simply because you want a job. Do it because you want to be a part of a community and you want to provide valuable information.
If you have made it all the way through this article it probably means that you are serious about building your network and your personal brand which is awesome!
Overall, building your network and your personal brand takes a ton of time and effort and if you are not willing to put in the effort then you probably won’t have nearly as much success. If you did enjoy this article though please feel free to reach out to me and let me know! Or if you have any questions I am more than happy to help however I can! :)
