Successful leaders know the value of hard work, innovative thinking, and perseverance. But they also know this basic truth:
Most of the best things in business — and life — come to you through other people.
Good business is rarely a solo enterprise, and relationships are essential to sustained, successful business.
Whether you’re doing lead gen, raising your next round, or looking for a new role, LinkedIn is one of the best ways to intentionally build and nurture a referral network — that is, a network of relationships with people who can offer you the connections and opportunities you need to move forward.
When your referral network is optimized, you are surrounded by like-minded individuals who can help you achieve your goals by connecting you with opportunities.
Regardless of what you are working towards, referral networking can help you achieve it. Here are a few tips on how to use LinkedIn to build a strong referral network that will help you accomplish your goals:
1. Define Your Objective
Before you start reaching out, it’s important to define your objective. Why are you reaching out? What do you hope these new connections will help you achieve? Once you have a clear objective in mind, you can identify the people who can help you. For example:
- For lead generation, your referral network should include current and former customers, plus vendors, consultants, and anyone else who might know and be respected by ideal prospects.
- If you are raising a round, your referral network should include people who are known and respected by investors, such as CEOs who have already been funded and services companies that work with funded businesses.
- If you are hiring, your referral network could include former employees and bosses, consultants, and anyone who might know a lot of the type of people you want to hire.
- If you want a board role, your referral network should include people who know your work and are already on boards.
2. Go Beyond Your Current Network
You might expect that the people who know you best are the most likely to make referrals.
But sometimes weaker ties deliver more opportunities. LinkedIn published a study, in which they looked at the behavior of 20 million people over a five-year period. They found that most job referrals came from people with “weak ties,” such as acquaintances or friends of friends (or on LinkedIn, from connections of connections or from its suggested connections).
While strong ties have value, of course, you may find more strategic payoff from identifying people who are well-connected in your space and invest in engaging with them.
3. Choose Quality over Quantity
People tend to think that more is better, and it’s tempting to invite and accept any connection on LinkedIn to reach 500 connections (the number LinkedIn considers a good-sized network) or 2,000+ (the number CEOs ought to have).
But a network filled with random individuals who aren’t friends, co-workers, mentors, leaders you admire, or meaningful potential relationships isn’t a network — it’s just a group of people. In fact, that network is a distraction from everything you’re working towards.
Instead, be patient and intentional as you make connections and build relationships with value. Invest your time and efforts into finding and nurturing the right people, not in hitting a number.
4. Commit to Your Network
A strong network is not built overnight. It takes time, effort, and commitment. For your network to be truly effective, it is important that you nurture it and regularly keep in touch with the people in it.
You need to give, give, give before you take. Follow people, engage with their posts, comment, and share. Support them in as many ways as possible.
After all, your ultimate goal is to create relationships built on mutual trust and respect.
While LinkedIn is a great place to find people who can make referrals — it’s not enough to connect with people and hope for referrals.
A network of real relationships requires nurturing and creating opportunities for people to talk with and about you. Here’s what that looks like:
Educate: What do your connections need to know about who you help and how you help them? Share the details about your business’s value proposition (what makes you unique) in posts, by linking to blog posts and articles, and in comments on their content
Nurture: Engage with content posted by your connections. Authentically support them by liking, commenting, or sharing their posts with your network.
Reciprocate: If someone can refer to you, then you can and should be able to refer to them, too. Pay attention and look for opportunities to help. This activates the reciprocity principle Robert Cialdini talks about in his famous book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. When your name pops up in their feed, they’ll be more likely to try to find ways to return the favor and support your goals.
Deepen the Relationship: Look for opportunities to do favors for them, and also ask for small favors in return. This builds trust in the relationship and makes it easier for the person to refer others in the future. As Cialdini says, people like you more when you ask them for a favor — whether they actually do it or not. Just asking shows that you value them, and it makes them feel good.
Create Opportunities to Refer: Host events they can invite people to, give them special offers they can extend to their community or team, and do interesting things that make them want to talk about you or suggest your content to their network.
When you make a point to create a referral network that is intentional and optimized, you expand your professional reach, open yourself up to new opportunities, and build lasting relationships with other industry leaders.
Remember: Clarity + Quality Connections + Nurturing = Strong Referral Network