Is Having a Large Network Important?

Written by: Adam Gray

I know when I first joined LinkedIn is used to want to keep my network “small and intimate” and I generally only connected to people whom I had met. My thinking was that if I had met them (and assuming that we had got on okay) we could use LinkedIn as a way of keeping in touch and not have to worry about when we changed jobs, emails, phone numbers etc.

I was profoundly wrong, and here’s why.

1. Connecting to people proactively is a great way of getting to know them BEFORE you meet them so you can work-out if there are any synergies there and if you like each other and if not…move along.
2. Most people who see the content you publish are your connections…so why would you not want this number to be as large as possible…that would make no sense at all.
3. When you go to a face to face event, someone walks up and proffers their hand saying “Hi, I’m Adam…” to not shake their hand would be both rude and a missed opportunity, so why not connect to people you’ve not met before and see where things go.

When you meet someone new they could be hugely valuable to you for a number of reasons; the could be a buyer/prospect, they could influence the buying decision, they could amplify your message…all of which are positive and you want to try and get as many of these people inside your network so they are aware of you and susceptible to your content.

When Tim and I were in Australia a couple of years ago speaking at some events for our friends, Graham Hawkins, when someone in the audience asked a question to Graham. At the time he had 20,000 connections on LinkedIn and the person asked “Why have so many connections Graham, you can’t possibly know who all of them are”…to which Graham replied “I don’t, but they all know who I am.”

Do you know everyone who watches your TV ad? Do you know everyone on your mail-out database? Do you know everyone who attends the show you have a stand at? Of course not…so why would you expect to know everyone in your network?

That’s the point. A bigger networks creates more opportunities for you.

Always Be Growing.

Related: How Digital Marketing Collapsed Under Covid-19