How will you use LinkedIn next year?
First let's figure out if there's any opportunity. Open your LinkedIn profile.
Click on "Advanced" to the right of the search box at the top of the page. (Circled in red.)
Then click on "Advanced" at the top of the left column. (Circled in green.)
You should land on a page that looks something like this. Now uncheck "1st Connections" and "Group Members". (Circled in red.)
...and you should land on a page something like this.
So?
Follow my logic.
First, I have less than 1,000 1st Connections. You don't have to invite everybody that you meet to connect and you don't have to accept every invitation that you receive to use LinkedIn effectively.
Think about the number of 2nd Connections that you have. I have 674,466 people that are connected to someone that is connected to me. Facebook would call them "Friends of Friends". How many of those people would be interested in talking to you? How many of those people would be ideal clients for you? How many of those people know somebody that would be an ideal client for you?
And they all know somebody that you know!
How long will it take you to find out?
Do the math. If I contacted 100 people/day and worked 7 days a week, 365 days/year it would take me 18.5 years to contact all of them. (What are the chances that I'm gonna work 365 days ANY year, let alone 18.5 years in a row?)
More math: What if I wanted to work 5 days/week next year and contact all of them? Easy - Peasy! I'd just have to contact 2,594 people EVERY DAY!
How many new clients do you need next year? 6? 12? 100? 1,000? How about in the next decade? What if you already know somebody that knows them and can introduce you?
DON'T DO THIS!
If I asked 674,466 people if they wanted to talk to me about growing their business, somebody would probably say, "Yes." and hire me, but I'd get a lot of "No's." because my approach is bad, bad, bad.
but,
DO THIS!
If each of them, was methodically attracted to me using an Inbound methodology.....