MANAGING YOUR EXISTING NETWORK
LinkedIn is often portrayed as a helpful tool to meet new people and grow your network. While that is true, managing your existing network is equally as important to ensure you can rely on people you have connected with in the past for help again in the future.
To view your existing network on LinkedIn, select the “My Network” tab from the main menu, then the “Manage my network” drop-down, then “Connections.” This list can be searched or filtered anytime to identify your existing connections relevant to your current goals.
There is no perfect way to maintain relationships with your existing connections but reaching out to them periodically via LinkedIn or another piece of contact information you may have for them is never a bad idea. What should you say? Consider one or more of the following topics:
- Share a professional (or personal, depending on your relationship) update of your own
- Congratulate them on a recent accomplishment or update in their life (check out the “Catch up” tab on the “My Network” page of LinkedIn for ideas)
- Reference something you learned about in class or online that reminded you of them
- Wish them a happy birthday, holiday, summer, etc.
- Ask them a question or for advice
When reaching out to an existing connection, especially one you haven’t been in touch in a while, it’s best to not ask for a favor right away. Rather, spend your first message reconnecting and rekindling your relationship. Then, after you have had a chance to reconnect, they may be more inclined to assist you with o favor.
GROWING YOUR NETWORK
With over 1 billion users, the possibilities to expand your network on LinkedIn are vast. Finding the right people to grow your network may involve many searches, lots of scrolling, and a good amount of outside research. This process may be time-consuming, but putting in the time can lead to better results.
We are often asked how many connections is a “good” number to have on LinkedIn. There really isn’t a universal answer to this question; the quality of your connections is more important than the quantity. When you are first starting out on LinkedIn, consider aiming for 20-30 connections, then let your network grow organically over time.
Getting Started: Connecting with People You Know in Real Life
A good place to start building your LinkedIn network is people you already know in real life. Think about your classmates, professors, advisors, coworkers, and supervisors. While you can also connect with family and friends, prioritize people in your life who can speak to your academic and/or professional skills.
Once you have a specific person in mind you’d like to connect with, it is best if you send your connection request directly from their profile because this is the only way you’ll have the option to send a personalized invitation (more below). Once on their profile, click the blue “Connect” button below their name. If the connect button is not visible, you may need to click “More” to find it.
When you click “Connect,” a pop-up will appear asking if you would like to accompany your connection request with a personalized invitation. LinkedIn only allows 5 personalized invitations per month for free, so choose who you send these to carefully, knowing that recipients are more likely to accept connection requests when they are accompanied by a personalized invitation.
Connecting with UConn Alumni
Did you know that there are over 150,000 UConn alumni on LinkedIn? Looking through UConn alumni profiles and connecting with alumni of interest can be insightful and beneficial to your career journey. To find UConn alumni, the first step is to type “UConn” into LinkedIn’s main search bar and visit UConn’s school page.
Once on UConn’s school page, navigate to the “Alumni” tab. From here, filter the thousands of UConn alumni on LinkedIn by keyword, start year, end year, where they work, where they live, what they do, what they are skilled at, what they studied, and/or how you are connected. The results of your search will appear below the filters. The alumni search feature can be helpful for a variety of reasons, including identifying alumni at companies you are interested in, seeing what types of jobs or graduate education alumni from your major went on to pursue, and even seeing who works in your preferred geographical area.
POSTING AND INTERACTING WITH OTHERS
Like many social media platforms, the homepage of each user’s LinkedIn account contains a newsfeed, which features posts from all the people, influencers, companies, groups, and topics the user is following. The newsfeed can be sorted by recent posts or posts that have gained the most engagement. In addition, based on the user’s LinkedIn activity, ads that may be of interest will be displayed.
Posting on LinkedIn is not a requirement of being a member. Many users simply create a LinkedIn profile and use the search features regularly without ever posting. However, posting can expand your name recognition, and strengthen your relationships with your connections, so it’s a good idea to consider.
To create a post of your own, navigate to your homepage by clicking “Home” in the main menu and scroll all the way to the top. Click anywhere within the large oval that says “start a post” to get started.
Posts can be about anything you’d like your network to know. Keep in mind what kinds of posts you like to see on your newsfeed or are most likely to engage with when writing your own. Common post topics include:
- The start or end of a new experience, like a job or internship
- Academic changes, like declaring a new major or minor, finishing up a class, or graduating
- Projects or assignments from class you enjoyed or did well on (consider tagging classmates if it was a group project)
- Awards or honors you received
- Topics you’re passionate about, like news from your field of study/industry or something related to an affinity community you identify with
- Questions you are seeking general responses to, like something you want advice or opinions about
The most successful posts on LinkedIn typically include more than just text. Consider adding media, a poll, a document, a celebration badge, or any of the other many post enhancement options LinkedIn provides (see the icons at the bottom of the post pop-up). Also, check out these best practices about post content compiled by LinkedIn.
A common question we receive is how often to post on LinkedIn. The answer, of course, is it depends! If you are actively seeking opportunities or to expand your network, you may want to post more often, perhaps 1-2 times a week. If you are not in an active search and are simply trying to keep yourself on the minds of your connections periodically, posting less often may suffice, such as once every 1-2 months. It’s ultimately up to you to decide how often and what to post about. Remember that you can pin posts in the “Featured” section of your profile to allow them to maintain higher visibility over time.
Lastly, in addition to creating posts of your own, be sure to interact with posts from others on your newsfeed. Similar to other social media platforms, you have options to react to, comment on, share, or send any post you see. While reacting is easy and quick, we encourage you to comment on posts too, since that takes more time and effort and may be more meaningful to your connections.
JOINING GROUPS
A group is made up of a subset of LinkedIn users united by something they have in common, such as an interest area, geographic area, or identity. Groups can be hyper-specific, such as only including members of an individual department at UConn, or much more broad, such as consisting of professionals from around the world. Groups allow members to interact in a private space within LinkedIn by posting so only other group members can see and sending direct messages to one another.
Joining groups is not required but may help you meet other LinkedIn users with whom you have something in common. To find new groups to join, type in a keyword in LinkedIn’s main search bar, then filter your results type to groups by selecting the oval near the top of the page that says “Groups.” Try starting by searching to see if your academic department at UConn has a group on LinkedIn. Alternatively, try other search terms relevant to your interests such as “women in film” or “aspiring data scientists” to find groups of interest.
Once you find a group that you might consider joining, visit their group page. There, you can read a group description (pay attention to any rules the group has) and some information about members, including a list of any of your connections who are already members. Once you click “Join,” you may be admitted to the group automatically, or you may need to wait to be approved by an admin. Either way, you will receive a notification if/when your membership has been approved or declined.
SEARCHING FOR OPPORTUNITIES
LinkedIn has a built-in job board, which can be accessed by clicking the “Jobs” tab in the main menu. On the “Jobs” page, you will automatically be shown some suggested positions to apply for based on your activity on LinkedIn. You are welcome to peruse these opportunities and/or perform a search of your own to find others. Though this tab is titled “Jobs,” it can also feature internships and other types of experiential learning.
To search for opportunities on your own, start by typing in a keyword and/or location at the very top of the “Jobs” page. The keyword can be a position title, skill, company, or any other keyword you’d like to try. The location can be a country, county, general region (ex. Greater Hartford), or city. Keep in mind you can adjust these keywords anytime if the ones you input originally are not returning the type of results you are looking for.
After you conduct your original search, more filter options will appear for you to narrow it down. These filters include position-specific elements like the experience level, salary, company, location format, and industry as well as post-specific elements like date posted, whether the position has less than 10 applicants so far, and whether any of your connections work at the company. Continue to experiment with these filters and keywords until you see opportunities that align with what you are looking for.
When looking at the results of your search, the positions will appear in a list on the left-hand column of your screen showing preliminary details, like the title, company, location, salary (if available), and connections you have who work at that company. When you click on a position, the details will appear on the right-hand column of your screen, including information like the responsibilities and qualifications. Be sure to read through the information thoroughly to develop a full understanding of the opportunity before deciding whether or not to apply.
If you’re not sure whether you want to apply or don’t have time to apply right away, you can save postings and come back to them later by going back to the main “Jobs” tab and clicking “My jobs.” Just be sure to note any upcoming deadlines so you don’t miss them. You can also set a job alert by toggling the switch in the blue notification bar at the top of your search to be notified when new opportunities that match your search criteria are posted.
LINKEDIN APP
LinkedIn has an app that is available for download from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. It is estimated that over 65% of LinkedIn users use the app, so if you are the kind of person who often uses a smartphone or tablet, we encourage you to give the app a try.
The app offers much of the same functionality as the website with a few key menu navigation differences. Two unique features/benefits of the LinkedIn app include:
- The ability to have notifications come up directly on your device, the same way texts and notifications from other social media platforms do
- A video-specific newsfeed, similar to TikTok or Instagram reels
ACCESSIBILITY
Both the LinkedIn website and app have a variety of features making the platform more accessible to users requiring accommodations. To learn about these features, visit the LinkedIn accessibility guide at https://www.linkedin.com/accessibility. This guide can also be accessed via a link at the bottom of the right-hand column on any page of LinkedIn.
Within LinkedIn Help, there are also many articles detailing how to navigate a variety of LinkedIn features using a screen reader: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/topic/a215014?trk=hc-articlePage-sidebar
