Some marketeers don’t like adding people on LinkedIn with whom they don’t have a personal connection. In my opinion, that’s weird. If you are working on your personal or company branding you should expand all your networks. Does this mean that I have to accept everyone? No, ofcourse not. I also decline people, usually if they are fake or if I don’t see any worth in connecting. But this is why I do add people on LinkedIn who I only spoke with once:

1. Accepting and adding strangers on LinkedIn

In sales and marketing it is common knowledge that a buyer usually needs 7 – 13 contact moments with your brand in order to move forward. In order to speed up that process, you can grow your LinkedIn network to include potential clients or people who, eventually, could introduce you to potential clients. By posting regularly they will recognize your name when you mail / call them, next to this they will see you as the expert in your brand, if you follow the next steps.

2. Share knowledge of others

Next to adding and accepting people, you should differentiate yourself and use LinkedIn’s power. By sharing usefull articles or videos within your branche, people will automatically link the knowledge you share, to you as a person. This can be very easy when you set up a tool like Buffer or Hootsuite to schedule posts.

3. React to others

By replying to posts you’ll get noticed. The algorithm of LinkedIn will see that you are an active user and will be more likely to share your post with the persons you interact with.

4. Create and share knowledge

By reading a lot on a subject, you are also able to gain the knowledge. It would be a waste to keep all this knowledge to yourself. So, I’d like to challenge you to write an article. Simply sum up what you have read in other articles and  give your opinion on the subject. By doing this people will not only see that you share knowledge, but that you are also able to reflect on others.

5. Use your skills to put people into action

After the previous steps, it’s time to put people into action. Engage with people who react on your articles. Send a direct message thanking them for their response, and try to get their phone number / Skype name / etc. to establish a call about the subject. Speaking to someone personally is the time to make a sale, don’t do it in the previous stages as people don’t trust you yet. If they see your name on a weekly base, they will feel that there is a connection with you.