Lucky are the people who have experienced three generations of levels of engagement:
- Mails (postcards)
- Yahoo ‘or’ Orkut messenger
- LinkedIn, Facebook ‘or’ WhatsApp
When one refers to a Social media site that’s also Professional; LinkedIn is what comes to mind.
LinkedIn is one of the largest & widely accessed professional social media sites today. If you are active on LinkedIn; chances of you “being found” by experts and organizations increase exponentially. An increase in your LinkedIn presence improves the chances of you receiving Connection requests. A member can have a maximum of 30,000 1st-degree connections; whereas the number of people who can Follow the member is unlimited.
There are different methods to generate connections with people on LinkedIn. Their significances in one’s profile are quoted below:
1st-degree – People you are directly connected to, as you have accepted their connection request; ‘or’ the other way round. You will see a 1st-degree icon next to the person’s name in the search results and similarly on their profile(s). You can communicate with them by sending a text message on LinkedIn.
2nd-degree – These are people who are connected to your 1st-degree connections. Here, you will see a 2nd-degree icon next to their name in the search results, as well as on their profile(s). You can send them an invitation by clicking Connect, ‘or’ interact with them through an InMail feature.
3rd-degree – Well, this is everyone who is connected to your 2nd-degree connections. You will see a 3rd-degree icon next to their name in the search results and on their profile(s).
Here are some Good-to-Knows when trying to connect with people or sending invitations:
First & Last name – If the full first and last name of the LinkedIn user is displayed; you can send them an invitation by clicking Connect.
First letter of the Last name – If you notice that only the first letter of the user’s last name is displayed; clicking Connect is not an option that would work for you. Instead, try contacting them via an InMail. This would speed things up for you.
Out of Network – Sometime, you may come across LinkedIn members, who fall outside the categories shared above. No problem! You can still contact them via InMail.
InMail messages – These are messages sent directly to LinkedIn members you are not connected to. If you have a Basic (Free) account, you need to upgrade your account to Premium, to be able to the InMail function.
How do people react on receiving connection requests?
It’s a well-known fact that humans are social animals; reason: whenever mutual connection requests are received through social media; a majority of them respond by accepting such requests.
When it comes to sites like LinkedIn, a lot of professionals end up with at least 10 – 20 connection requests in their LinkedIn inbox, every day.
Up first, are those you can call as The Acceptors. They don’t do any research about the sender. They simply preview the profile and accept it.
Then you have the, I am too Busy users. They simply don’t bother to check the sender’s profile, they just accept it and move on.
Now there are folks who randomly send connection requests to unknown people across the platform; just to increase their connections. They simply want to be a part of The List.
Next up, we have The Researchers. These folks perform an intensive breakdown on every connection request they receive, before accepting it.
Lastly, there are The Business people. They simply want to expand their business by making connections which are mutually beneficial for both.
All in all, LinkedIn offers you a lot of opportunities to connect with random people that may prove beneficial to you. Your connection list may include job seekers, potential partners, and much more.
This list is destined to go on. So Just keep your Eyes Open.
