206 – Does Size Matter on LinkedIn?

Karen Yankovich 0:00
You’re listening to the good girls get rich podcast episode 206.

Intro 0:05
Welcome to the good girls get rich podcast with your host, Karen Yankovich. This is where we embrace how good you are girl, stop being the best kept secret in town, learn how to use simple LinkedIn and social media strategies and make the big bucks.

Karen Yankovich 0:23
And low there. I’m your host, Karen Yankovich. And this is episode 206 of the good girls get rich podcast. And this show and this episode is brought to you by she’s linked up where we teach simple relationship and heart based LinkedIn marketing to women, a system that simply gets you on the phone with people that are perfect for you people that can change your business, change your life, and increase your bank account for ever. Our goal is to create more wealthy women of influence. If you listen here before, if you love what you hear today, you know, we love to hear from you. Please make sure you’re subscribing to the show wherever you’re listening to. And I would love for you to leave a review. Again, your podcast platform of choice that helps me understand what episodes you’re relating to. And also, of course, we’d love for you to share this episode on social media, use the hashtag good girls get rich tag me, I’m at Karen Yankovich across all social media, and then I can share your posts with my audience. And we both get more visibility that way, right. So that is how we can grow. In the show notes below. There’s a link for SpeakPipe where you can leave us an audio message, maybe you’ve got a guest you think we should interview, maybe it’s a topic you’d love to hear me talk about, maybe you just want to leave a review there, whatever we would love that I love getting audio messages from you. So just go to Karen yankovich.com/ 206. You’ll see the blog for this page, you’ll see the link to SpeakPipe and all the other things I talked about on the show today. So check that out. So the topic today is the size matter on LinkedIn. And I want to tell you a little I don’t know if it’s a funny story. But it’s an interesting story I think about when I first got started teaching LinkedIn, you know, a tiny little bit of my background, I have been in sales and marketing my whole life, for the most part in the technology world and it but there was always there’s always been a sales component to it. And when I started to shift my career and my business to digital marketing, I just naturally started bringing people to LinkedIn, because what I was naturally good at my strength was relationship marketing. And I really saw the need for shining a light on your genius, right? If you you know, what I mentioned, I was in the IT world, I was often the only woman in the room in the in the IT world. And if I didn’t show up and confidently, you know, shining a light on what I knew about and how I could support the situation, I was gonna be ignored. Okay, so I, I just kind of grew up in that world, right? So. So when I moved into this world, and I really wasn’t doing just LinkedIn strategy, I was doing digital marketing, like marketing strategy in general, and digital marketing strategy, I was just naturally bringing people to LinkedIn, because that’s where relationship building, it happens. And that’s where it’s important that you shine a light on your genius. And I was kind of doing it naturally. And then, you know, I was a part of Marie Forleo xbi school back in the day, I took B school in 2012. And one of my, I had some a couple little one, one specific little mastermind that I was a part of, and I remember somebody saying to me, you know, you talk a lot about LinkedIn, maybe you should be focusing on that, because people are starting to ask me to speak on LinkedIn. Right? And I hadn’t really thought about niching down on LinkedIn yet. So I’m like, alright, well, if what would that look like if I did that? So first thing I did was look at my LinkedIn profile. I’m like, Well, this is where this starts, right? I’ve got to take a look, I’ve got to start with my profile. And really, and by the way, I remember having profile envy. I remember seeing other people’s LinkedIn profiles and going, Oh, my God, I wish my profile looked like that. Right. So I totally remember that. And I only had like, a couple 100 connections, because I wasn’t really using it to mark it as much. Because I just just the way that things had happened, right. So now that’s all changed. So what I did was I don’t know if any of you guys are listening that might remember back in the old 2012 B school days, I went into the B school group, and I offered LinkedIn profile reviews. And I was like, Who wants me to review your profile. And I did simply to grow my connections over 500 I needed to be over 500 so that people could see I at least had 500 Plus, if I was going to be teaching this stuff, I certainly had to look worthy of people’s investment of time or money, right? Even though I knew I knew what I was doing, I wouldn’t have been teaching it right. But I was like, I had to get over 500 I gotta start like, I start doing this work. So that’s how I started doing this. And at that time, that was really, that felt really important to me. So I did LinkedIn profile reviews, and I’m like, you have to connect with me if you want to review so you know, so that I can see your profile. And in those days, that was sometimes true. It wasn’t 100% True, but I was like we gotta let’s make sure we connect so I can make sure there’s nothing hidden from me. I think that’s what I said. So that was so I wasn’t making things up. But I was just saying that because I needed to build my connections, right?

So the idea of how many connections you have has been in my head since the very first day that I started focusing my business on LinkedIn. And I’m wondering if you wonder about this, like, Do you wonder if those numbers do matter on LinkedIn? Does size matter on LinkedIn? Well, in my opinion, it does. And it doesn’t, there are a couple of places that it does. And we’ll talk about that in the show. And then there’s one big massive reason that it doesn’t. And that’s what we’re gonna get into now. So the first thing is, let’s talk about, do you want to get over 500, let me just be clear, this is not as transparent as it used to be back 10 years ago, it just said 500 Plus, and it was really hard to find out what that real number is. Now it’s different because now next to the number of connections you have, you also have the number of followers and that’s public. So even though it might say 500 Plus connections, the number of followers is, is still published there. So it’s not as trans it is, it is more transparent now than it was then that being said, get over 500. Like, if you’re going to be using LinkedIn to market to build your network, you know, you’ve got to have a great profile, and you really do have to be over 500, like, let at least let it at least say 500 Plus, okay? I mean, it’s not that hard to do. And I don’t want you doing this randomly. But if you belong to a network, go into your chamber of commerce and connect with some people there, maybe you know, a lot of the a lot of groups on Facebook, like the women supporting women groups, they’re always looking for that every now and then they have a LinkedIn connection day, right? So go on that and connect with some of those people there. Don’t connect with everyone. Like don’t just connect with people, because because you’re saying Karen said get over 500 Try to be somewhat strategic about it. Because I don’t want you to have a random network full of crazy people, I’d like you to have a really valuable network. I mean, if you certainly can join our network, LinkedIn for women community.com. And, you know, put a message out that you’re looking to get over 500, based on this episode, maybe we’ll even do a post about that next, you know, when this episode goes live, and you know, so that if you need support of that, we’re here to support you with that. Okay. So the first thing is, it matters in that it matters a little bit in that one section. Okay. The second place that I want to talk about whether it matters or not, it absolutely does not matter. Once you get over 500, do not worry about the size of your network. Do not build your network with tons of random people do not hire somebody that’s going to spam your network and connect with 100 people a day, because somewhere somehow, some by some magic miracle leads you’re gonna fall out of the sky. Okay, don’t don’t do that. Because what your LinkedIn network, if you’re strategic about it can be the most valuable thing in your business. Right? It’s the who, you know, right? We’ve heard our whole lives it’s not what you know, it’s who you know, right? This is the who you know. So when it’s full of garbage, you’re not going to be able to vote leverage it as much, you’re just going to be like, Oh, my God, I get all this crazy pitching stuff, which again, PS, why you shouldn’t be connect with 100 people a day, you don’t want to be one of those people. That is pitching people all this crazy stuff, right? Don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about it. Now, listen, in full disclosure, I have a ton of connections, but I have a ton of connections, mainly because a lot of people connect with me, right? Because I teach this stuff, I’m speaking at an event, I get a lot of connection requests, right? So so I have a lot of connections. So I’m not like I’m saying this to you. And you can if you look at my network, you’re like, Well, you can you have 15,000 people you’re connected to Well, that happened over time organically, okay, I there’s never been a time in my life that I’m like, I need 15,000 connections. If organically you get to that point, that’s fine. I’m not saying limited. I’m saying don’t, it doesn’t matter if it’s 501 or 15,000. What matters is how many people you got on the phone with that week from your network. And the more strategic and consistent you are with building your network, the more of those phone calls you’re gonna have, and the more valuable they’re going to be. These are all things we teach in our cheese linked up program, because I want women to be on the phone consistently with the most brilliant people in the world and the people that can change their business forever. So that doesn’t happen. When you spam your network. It happens when your strategic and consistent and it doesn’t take a lot of time. I’m telling you, this process doesn’t take a lot of time. So when it comes to building your actual LinkedIn network, I don’t really care how many people you have, I don’t want you to be connected with a ton of people. Frankly, I want you to be every person you connect with. I want your goal to be to get on the phone with them doesn’t happen, of course all the time. But that should be your goal. If you’re not if you don’t have a goal, to actually connect and build a relationship with somebody that you are out doing outreach to connect to Why are you connecting with them? Right? It’s about building your business, building your network, building your your, you know, we’ve heard like your network drives your net worth,

right like it is true, it is true. It doesn’t matter about the size, though. It’s not about the size. It’s about who’s in that network, right. That’s why I want you to be strategic. And this third thing is gonna be a short episode today. Then the third thing is, there is a value and paying attention to the size of the people you’re connecting to, to their networks, because it is valuable to have a large second degree network. Okay, so hear me out, let me tell you a little bit about what first, second and third degree networks are in case you’re in just in case you don’t know, first degree networks are you and I are connected. Your second degree network is you and I are connected. And maybe I have my you know, let’s say you have 1000 connections and in your 1000 connections, I’m connected also, to 50 of those people, the other 950 in your network becomes second degree connections to me. And where that’s valuable is, as you are doing that research, and being strategic and consistent about how you’re building out your network, it’s much more valuable if they’re second degree connections versus first degree connections. Because you’re only one it just like, psychologically, you’re only one step away. And there might be an opportunity to say, Hey, I see you’re connected to Karen. And we’re both connected to Karen, I’d love to connect with you as well. Right? So it is important, not important, but there’s a value to looking at the size of your second degree network. And as you’re building connections, for example, connect with me, because I have 15,000 connections, right. And I, I think that they’re mostly valuable connections, right? Because I’m not really picky about saying yes, I’m sort of picky about saying yes, I say yes, because many people might just want to connect with me or follow me because they listen to my show, or, or you know, but maybe they want to work with me, right? So I’m always willing to say, Yes, I’m happy to be connected, unless they pitch me on that initial connection request, in which case, that’s where it, that’s where I’m picky. I’m like, I’m not doing that. So don’t spend a lot of time worrying about this. But there’s a value if we’re talking about numbers, does size matter on LinkedIn, size could matter in the size of your second degree network, because it helps you build your first degree network. Hopefully that makes sense. Let me recap that, the first thing you need to do is make sure you’re over 500, just get over 500. It’s not hard to do. Do it as strategically as you can by like, again, connecting with people in organizations you belong to go to their member directory and connect with people be strategic, because listen, you might be able to say, hey, maybe there’s a collaboration opportunity, right? But like get that make that your first priority. Once you hit that, that’s it five people a week, that’s my goal is to do outreach to five people a week, because if you aren’t just reactive to your network, then your network is not useful to you. It’s just it’s just a bunch of crazy people, right? Maybe they may not be crazy, but they’re random and not strategic. If you are strategic about adding, you know, high value people to your network every week, not 100, but five a week, right? In a year, it gives you another couple 100 really valuable people in your network. And that’s what we want for you, we want you to have really valuable people in your network. So it doesn’t matter how many there are, be strategic, be consistent, do be connecting, but make it small. The third thing is if you’re going to focus on large networks focus on the large networks of your of your connections, do they have a large network, because a large network of second degree people is valuable as you’re building your network. Okay, so hopefully that matters. So the answer to the question, Does size matter? Generally, no. There are a couple of things for the vast majority of the work you’re doing on LinkedIn generally know it with those two exceptions that I mentioned. And those, again, are not the important things. The important things on LinkedIn are being strategic consistently connecting with people and consistently getting on the phone with people. That is where my students are having quarter million half a million dollar years from doing that. Okay. So I really do believe that this is where the people that you connect in your world is makes all the difference in the success of your business. And it happens here on LinkedIn. Right. So if you’re serious about building your network on LinkedIn, whether you’re a job seeker, business owner, salesperson, whatever, I’m here for you, I’m here for you, I, you know, if you’ve heard listen to some of my podcasts recently, or some of my episodes recently, I am really passionate this year, about helping women have more money, the more wealthy women in the world, the more women can make an impact in the world. So I am here for that if

you want that to be you. Let’s talk right there’s a link in the show notes or go to Karen yankovich.com/call. You can get on my calendar that way. I am here to lift you up. A rising tide lifts all boats, right I do this podcast to support you. I’m happy to do this free consultation with you to help you see if this is a fit for you to get some support. Help me help you share this podcast, take a quick screenshot of this episode on your phone share that on social media, right and then I’ll see it and share it with my audience. And this is how we start supporting each other. And it’s never been more important for women to support each other to more growth, more wealth, more influence and more impact and I’m here for you for that. The bottom line is it can Be easy, it can be simple. I’m here with you to do it together and I will see you back here again next week.