How To Build Your Network on LinkedIn
Image by FunnyBiz (Flickr)
The internet makes countless real estate connections available to you at your fingertips, but how do you maximize them and begin to build your network? Creating a social media account and building followers helps, but if you’re not engaging them, starting conversations, and building relationships, you aren’t maximizing their potential. An effective way of building your professional network is to get on LinkedIn. We talked about how to create your account and tips on getting started, but here’s more about how you can start joining groups and discussions on LinkedIn to really make it work for you:
Do your research. LinkedIn limits you to joining 50 groups. This is more than enough if you plan on actually engaging, sharing, and posting to the groups you join. This being said, you need to research the groups that best fit your demographic and will help extend your reach. Under the “Groups” tab, you can see the groups LinkedIn recommends based on your information. You can also enter queries such as “property management” or “rental broker” into the search bar on the top right to find more relevant groups.
Join the groups where you’ll make the biggest impact. If you join a group with 2000 members, it’s easy for your comments and questions to get lost as it gets pushed to the bottom. The biggest group isn’t always the best way to go. Join, build your connections, and use it as a resource to stay updated, but don’t forget about joining smaller groups where you can take part as a leader and really make an impact. On the sidebar of the group, you’ll be able to see the top influencers. When you add value to the group through your input, you’ll make your way to the top and become a familiar presence. Be the big fish in a small pond!
Be proactive about participating. You can sign up for daily emails to alert you about the discussions going on, but you should be actively scanning about 3 groups to answer questions or take part in the conversation. Become a familiar presence in the group, and look for opportunities where you can share fresh advice, ideas, and start building your connections.
Join popular discussions. LinkedIn allows you to see the trending discussions, where there are the most views, replies, and user interaction. It’s the discussion located at the top of the list. Go in there and start responding with your insight. Ask questions, “Like,” or share the thread to get more people involved. You want to be a familiar presence in the group and be seen as an industry leader. After you’ve acclimated to the personality of the group, popular threads, and common questions asked by users, you can create your own discussion.
Look at what other members are doing. Examine what the most active users in the group are doing. Are they starting their own discussions, offering up advice from their personal experience, or sharing useful resources? Use them as a model to start building your own presence.
