Cultivating a LinkedIn Audience That Will Help You Build Your Business

There are different philosophies about how to build your audience on LinkedIn.

There’s the “accept every connection request” philosophy, which works just the way it sounds.

And there’s the “screen your invitations” crowd who suggest you accept only certain invitations based on preset criteria.

I fall squarely into the second group. That said… you shouldn’t be waiting around for connection requests to come to you.

What I’m going to show you today is how to use LinkedIn strategically and proactively, so that most of the people you connect with are either interested in your services or have connections with the industry/audience you want to serve.

From there, we’ll talk about how your posts, comments, and direct messages also affect the audience you attract.

But let’s start with the connections…

LinkedIn Connections to Help Your Business Grow

If you want to build a strategic network, obviously that’s going to start with who you’re connecting with.

If you’re a writer like me, it’s easy to end up with a network full of other writers. Now, having writers in your network is great—you can swap ideas, ask questions, share resources, and refer work to each other.

However, if there’s no one in your network but writers, that gets to be a problem… at least if you want LinkedIn to be a source of client work.

So, you need to think strategically about who you’re sending connection requests to and which connection requests you’re accepting.

People in Your Industry

If you’ve picked a niche or at least know which types of companies and industries you want to focus on, that’s a good place to start.

At least once a week, do a search on LinkedIn for people within your favorite industries. Pick out a handful who feel like a good fit—you like what they’re posting, their About section speaks to you, they work at a company you’d love to write for—and send a connection request.

You can include a personalized note, but if you’re using the free version of LinkedIn, you can only do that a handful of times a month, so save that for the people you’re most excited to connect with.

People Who Hire Writers

In addition to general people from your industry (who can be an excellent source of knowledge and referrals), pay particular attention to people in your industry who are also likely to hire writers.

Look for headline descriptions that include titles like Marketing Manager, Creative Director, Content Manager, Copy Chief, Marketing Director, and VP of Marketing.

When one of these folks accepts your invitation to connect, be sure to send them a direct message thanking them and introducing yourself.

People Who Have Your Audience’s Attention

There are some folks on LinkedIn who have big followings and who post thoughtful, informative posts about their industry or area of expertise every single day.

When you notice someone like this in your industry, look to see who is responding to their posts. If you see a lot of comments from people in your target industry or from people with those likely-to-hire-writers titles, then follow that person. Send a connection request, too… but, even if they don’t connect, following them can help you grow your network. More on that in a moment….

But first, if you need a little help finding strategic connections, look to ChatGPT for an assist.

Try this prompt…

ChatGPT will give you some suggestions for the process you use to find those people. But, if you follow up with a request for specific examples, it may also provide you with some individuals’ names.

Sending and accepting connection requests is only the first step to building your strategic network.

You can attract more people from your industry by also being thoughtful about what you post.

Attracting Your Ideal Audience With Relevant Posts

The people you attract to your network will depend, to some degree, on what you post.

Again, writers can fall into a trap here. Focusing on what you know best is the easiest way to come up with post ideas… and that could mean you’re sharing stories about how you’re landing clients, what you’re doing to promote your services, as well as what you love about the writing process.

You need to shift gears.

Imagine your ideal client. And imagine this client isn’t someone who posts on LinkedIn, so you don’t know what kinds of things they’re talking about. But they are someone who lurks on LinkedIn, because they recognize LinkedIn as a great place to learn new things, stay on top of industry trends, and find inspiration for what they’re working on.

So, your posts need to talk about what those ideal clients want to learn about, problems they want to solve, pain points they’ve been beating their head against the wall over, and what’s changing in the industry and how it’s going to affect business as usual.

A good way to start building out your posting strategy is to do a quick brainstorm of all the ways you help your clients, the news topics they’re paying attention to, the pain points you know your clients struggle with, and the questions clients most commonly ask you.

Then take each of those topics and explore it from different angles.

For example, maybe you just helped a client start using segmenting in their email marketing, and, as a result, they’ve seen a significant increase in revenues.

From that experience you could:

• Do a mini case study
• Explore why segmenting works with stats to back it up
• Talk about how AI is affecting segmenting and what marketers need to know
• Highlight the number one mistake email marketers make (not segmenting) and give tips to turn that around
• Provide a mini roadmap to start segmenting

Best of all, you’re not limited to just one. You could write about segmenting from every one of these angles and then have five posts at the ready to drip out over the next few weeks.

After you post, send connection requests to anyone who reacts or responds who seems like a good fit for your services.

For help with your LinkedIn editorial planning, try a ChatGPT prompt like this:

Then copy and paste your brainstorm in and see what you get.

Magic Happens in the Comments

A lot of good stuff happens in the Comments section on LinkedIn. Discussions are had. Connections are made. Ideas are bandied about.

Participating regularly in the comments of posts from industry thought leaders—those people with large followings who attract your target audience—is an often-overlooked way to strategically build your network.

Each day, spend a little time looking at what those folks have to say. And which of those threads are getting the most reactions.

Then, post your own thoughtful comments to those threads. You could ask a question, highlight something you particularly agree with, respectfully disagree, or add something new and relevant. The point here is to be part of the discussion.

You can be even more strategic by looking through the other comments on the thread, finding people you’d like to connect with, and responding to their comments.

Finally, whenever you do find yourself in a discussion, whether with the original poster or a fellow commenter, that’s the moment to send a connection request.

Use Your Network

What’s the point of building a network of connections, if you don’t nurture those connections?

In addition to posting, connecting, and commenting, you also want to cultivate a conversation habit with the people in your network.

Don’t overthink this.

When someone accepts a connection request (or you accept theirs), send them a quick note to introduce yourself. Tell them (briefly) about what you do and whom you help… and ask them about what they do.

In addition to that, each day send out a few direct messages to individuals in your network. This can be as simple as saying hello and asking them how their summer is going.

Your goal here is to deepen the relationship and become someone whose name they recognize. Then, if you do ask about doing some work for them or request a referral from them, it won’t feel like a favor between strangers.

Having a robust, strategically built network on LinkedIn can help you keep your client pipeline full, and it can open the doors to unexpected opportunities. Even better… it’s a lot of fun to get to know new people and learn more about your industry and craft. Wins all around!