9 Reasons Why LinkedIn Friendship Is the Mightiest of Magics

Take it from My Little Pony – friendship is magic! And guess what? You can harness that magic and wield the mighty power of friendship on LinkedIn to become a social media socialite! You can become a unicorn in a sea of donkeys.

 

Most people on LinkedIn tend to play it safe when it comes to adding connections. While sites like Twitter openly advocate adding strangers, most LinkedIn users hesitate to add someone to their network that they haven’t at least met in some vague capacity.

However, loosening up the definition of “friendship” can have some serious benefits, especially on LinkedIn. Today we’re discussing how connection-bingeing can greatly improve your LinkedIn street cred. So forget about stranger danger; go ahead add those randos!

Advantages of Bingeing on LinkedIn Connections

1. Top Position in Most Viewed Connections

Having more LinkedIn connections increases your chances of showing up as one of a user’s “most viewed connections.”

 

While this may seem trite to some, appearing in a user’s “most viewed connections” can be pretty handy. Recently I was at an industry event and had two different individuals recognize me from LinkedIn. We had never met before, but they remembered me from their most viewed LinkedIn connections!

2. Ridiculous Number of Profile Views

Chances are that when you add a new user to your connections, they’ll end up checking out your profile. Once you start adding and accepting more LinkedIn connections, you’ll see your profile views dramatically increase. I went from a few profile views now and then to thousands per week! Pretty incredible.

 

Some Scrooge McDucks out there may be wondering what the point is of getting more profile views. Well, it means more notice and attention. Isn’t that what networking is all about? This would come in especially handy if you were looking for a job.

 

3. More Endorsements Than an Eagle Scout

Another great advantage of LinkedIn connection-bingeing is the huge increase in endorsements. Endorsements are like LinkedIn badges of honor, as coworkers and friends +1/endorse you for certain skills. When you’re lacking in connections, you’ve got less people in your network to endorse you.

Getting a few 99+ endorsement streaks looks fantastic on a LinkedIn profile, but it’s nearly impossible to get that many endorsements without a large connection base.

 

Even in fields where I’m considered an expert, like SEO and SEM, I didn’t have a ton of endorsements. Now that I’ve racked up 10,000+ connections, I get nearly 300 new endorsements each week!

4. More People Want to Be Your Friend

Once you begin your LinkedIn connection spree, you’ll find that as you add more connections, you’ll receive more connection requests from other users as well. You’re LinkedIn Inbox will be full in no time. After implementing my new LinkedIn connection strategy, I find myself receiving 100-300 connection requests each week!

 

Yup, I’m definitely looking pretty popular these days. You’d think I’m the only guy in town who is wearing tight pants.

 

5. Legendary LinkedIn Post Engagement (More Likes, Comments, & Shares)

With over 10,000 connections, my status updates receive legendary LinkedIn post engagement. Previously my average status update might receive a few likes, but nothing too exciting. After my latest LinkedIn connection adds, my status updates receive anywhere from 30 to 200 likes!

 

Once your posts receive some decent engagement, LinkedIn will begin giving timeline preference to your posts, resulting in even more engagement! It’s a glorious cycle of LinkedIn love.

6. Your Published Content Gets More Popular

Once you become one of the LinkedIn elite, your published content skyrockets in popularity.

How does this come about? The LinkedIn blogging platform notifies users when a connection has published a post. This means that with more connections in your network, more users will be alerted when you publish a new piece of content. The result is a truckload of engagement with your published content – a marketer’s dream come true!

With this increased engagement also comes the increased likelihood of being featured in LinkedIn Pulse! Once you’re featured there, you’re virtually guaranteed even more engagement.

My LinkedIn published content now gets anywhere between 1k and 55k views. One of my recent posts received 183 Likes, 168 comments and 51,288 page views! This is pretty incredible considering that a couple months ago I’d be lucky to receive just a handful of likes or comments.

 

7. Boost in Connections on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.

When people engage with your content on LinkedIn, there is also a decent chance they’ll end up sharing your content on the other big social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.  I find that when I have a very successful, high-engagement LinkedIn post, I’ll also see a big boost in my Twitter and Google+ followers.

8. More LinkedIn Followers

After engaging with one of my published content pieces, many LinkedIn users decide to follow me. Followers are LinkedIn users who subscribe to my content updates, but aren’t official LinkedIn connections. This is just one more tool that lets users subscribe to your content updates and posts, which is great for content promotion. The more of them, the merrier!

9. Increased Website Traffic

High post engagement usually results in more website traffic. I’ve increased traffic to WordStream from LinkedIn by 4X over the span of just a few weeks, and it’s all thanks to LinkedIn connection bingeing!

The Downside to Loosening Up on LinkedIn Connections

While loosening the standards for your LinkedIn connections has some serious benefits, there are some cons as well.

• Spam. A larger network means more people trying to sell you junk. Be ready to enter spam city. You’ll have to spend a decent chunk of time sorting through the mess and dumping many messages in the trash bin.

• 30k Connection Limit. LinkedIn cuts you off at 30k connections. I’m currently at 10k, and considering that I’m adding hundreds of new connections each week, it won’t be so long until I hit the ceiling. Once I hit the limit I’ll have to delete the bottom 25% of my connections to clear space for new, better connections.

• Endorsement is Implied. If anyone I know connects to one of my numerous LinkedIn connections, my face will appear as a connection in common. The danger here is that some people will see my face and consider my connection a vote of confidence, even though truthfully the connection in question could be a complete stranger.

While there are certainly some disadvantages to having tons of LinkedIn connections, I think they are well worth the trouble considering the amazing benefits you get in exchange.

Start Building Your Magic LinkedIn Connections

LinkedIn connection bingeing, while not entirely kosher for some, provides glorious advantages for those willing to push the envelope. It’s time to realize the true magic of friendship and put its awesome powers to your advantage. And you can get started building your massive LinkedIn network by shooting me a connection request today!