10 Top Ways to Get More Connections on LinkedIn
Most LinkedIn advice tells you to connect with everyone and their dog. Send a hundred requests a week, watch the number climb, feel good about it. I have watched Derbyshire business owners do exactly this and end up with a network of 3,000 people who never buy from them, never refer them, and barely remember who they are.
I have been running Optimise Your Marketing from Cromford Mills for 18 years, and in that time I have helped enough East Midlands SMBs with their LinkedIn to know the difference between a big network and a useful one. Connections on their own do nothing. What matters is who they are, why they said yes, and what happens after.
This post covers ten ways to get more LinkedIn connections properly, the kind that turn into conversations, referrals, and new business. No growth hacks, no bots, just the approach I use with clients and on my own profile.
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Get your free scorecardWhy LinkedIn Connections Are Not the Real Goal
Before the ten ways, one point worth making. A connection request accepted is not a result. It is an opening. I have seen Derbyshire manufacturers with 500 tightly relevant connections outperform competitors with 5,000 random ones, because every single person in that smaller network actually knew who they were and what they did.
If you take one thing from this post, take this: build your LinkedIn network the way you would build a client list. Quality first, relevance second, volume a distant third.
1. Optimise Your Profile Before You Send a Single Request
Your profile is doing the selling before you ever open your mouth. A professional photo, a headline that says what you actually do for people rather than your job title alone, and a work history that reads like proof rather than a list of duties.
I tell every client the same thing. If someone accepts your request and then visits your profile confused about what you do, you have lost them. Get this right first, because it makes every other step on this list work harder. This ties directly into your wider brand and positioning, not just your LinkedIn page.
2. Personalise Every Connection Request
Generic requests get ignored, and rightly so. Nobody wants to be another number in someone's outreach spreadsheet.
The formula I use with clients is simple: compliment, connect, contribute. Mention something specific about their work, say why you would like to connect, and offer something of value, even if it is just a genuine observation. It takes an extra thirty seconds and it roughly doubles acceptance rates in the campaigns we run for East Midlands clients.
A personalised request takes thirty seconds longer to write. It is still the highest return thirty seconds most business owners spend on LinkedIn all week. Stuart Baddiley, Optimise Your Marketing
3. Use Mutual Connections and Warm Introductions
A shared connection is the fastest trust shortcut on the platform. If someone in your network already knows and rates the person you want to reach, ask for an introduction rather than going in cold.
This is one of the oldest rules of relationship-led lead generation and it works just as well on LinkedIn as it does at a Derbyshire networking breakfast. Warm always beats cold.
4. Join and Participate in the Right LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn groups have quietened down over the years, but the good ones are still active pockets of your exact audience. Find two or three genuinely relevant to your industry and show up regularly, not just to sell but to add something useful to the conversation.
Consistent, useful participation builds recognition. People connect with names they have already seen adding value, long before they connect with strangers.
5. Share Content That Proves You Know Your Subject
Posting content regularly is still one of the most reliable ways to get more LinkedIn connections, because it puts you in front of people you have never met. The content has to earn attention though. A generic motivational quote will not do it.
Share what you know. Client lessons, industry data, opinions on changes in your sector. This is the same principle behind everything we do in social media marketing for clients: value first, promotion second.
How one Derbyshire professional services client tripled relevant LinkedIn connections in 90 days
By fixing their profile, personalising every request, and posting twice a week with a clear point of view, a Matlock-based client went from ad hoc LinkedIn activity to a steady stream of inbound conversations, without spending a penny on ads.
See how we approach social media6. Engage With Other People's Content Properly
Liking a post takes one second and does almost nothing. A genuine comment that adds to the discussion gets you noticed by the poster and everyone else reading the thread.
Set aside fifteen minutes a day to comment properly on posts from people you want to connect with. It is a small habit that compounds fast, and it costs nothing but attention.
7. Turn Events Into Connections, Online and In Person
Whether it is a LinkedIn Live, a webinar, or an actual event in Derbyshire or further afield, events are where connection requests make the most sense. You already have a shared reference point.
Follow up within a day or two with a message that recaps the specific thing you spoke about. Generic "great to meet you" messages get forgotten. Specific ones do not.
8. Import Your Existing Contacts, With Care
Your email contacts list is full of people you already have a relationship with who are not yet connected on LinkedIn. Import them, but still personalise the request rather than sending LinkedIn's default message.
This is also a good moment to check your CRM and customer data is organised well enough that you know who these contacts actually are and why reconnecting matters.
9. Follow and Engage With Industry Influencers
Following the right voices in your sector, and engaging with their posts consistently, puts you in front of the same audience they have already built. It is one of the quieter ways to get more LinkedIn connections that most business owners overlook.
It also keeps you close to how algorithms and platform behaviour are shifting, which changes more often than most people realise.
10. Regularly Evaluate and Prune Your Network
Once a quarter, look through your connections and remove the ones that are inactive, irrelevant, or simply were not a good fit in the first place. A tighter, more relevant network performs better in every sense, from the content you see to the people who see your posts.
Quality over quantity is not a platitude here. It genuinely changes how much value your network delivers back to you.
How This Fits Into the Bigger Marketing Picture
LinkedIn connections are one piece of a much larger picture, and treating them in isolation is where most Derbyshire SMBs go wrong. Your network only pays off if your website, your follow-up process, and your wider positioning are pulling in the same direction.
This is exactly what the BIG12 framework is built to fix. It covers all twelve pillars of marketing that actually move the needle for small businesses, LinkedIn and social media included, so nothing is left working in isolation. You can read more about the full framework on our BIG12 page.
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None of these ten ways are complicated. Personalise your requests, engage properly, share useful content, prune your network. Most business owners reading this already knew most of it.
The gap is not knowledge, it is time and consistency. Running a business and keeping LinkedIn activity going every week is a hard combination, and it is the main reason good strategies stall after a fortnight.
This is where we come in. Eighteen years of doing this for Derbyshire and East Midlands businesses has taught us that a plan only works if someone actually keeps it running.
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We will look at your current marketing, benchmark it against the BIG12, and give you a practical set of actions to take. No sales pitch. No fluff. Just 18 years of honest advice applied to your business.
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