Who Should I Add on LinkedIn?

¶Here’s who you should add on LinkedIn

1. ¶Potential clients

It’s becoming more and more difficult to get in front of potential clients. We’re all experts at detecting spam emails and LinkedIn DM spammers, we can’t read mail delivered to our non-existent offices, and we don’t spend as much time at networking events.

But there’s one place your dream clients are hanging out. In fact, 134.5 million professionals use LinkedIn every single day. That jumps to 403.6 million when you look at people using it every month.

So they’re out there. And they’re active on LinkedIn.

You just need to work out how to effectively engage with them on the platform. (For the full breakdown of how to turn dream clients into leads, check out our LinkedIn training).

2. ¶Clients

LinkedIn is a great way to generate new leads. But it’s often overlooked as a brilliant way to retain your current clients too. There are two types of clients you want to add on LinkedIn:

• People you work with directly. Current clients who see your LinkedIn posts are far more likely to rate the experience of working with you higher. They see your expertise, and they see how much other people value it too. Plus, when they leave their current role, they’ll be reminded of you and what you offer every time they see a post - and hopefully take you with them to the new company.
• People who work at the company, but don’t work with you directly. Networking within an organization you work with can be tricky. But it’s effective. When you work with large organizations, the chances are lots of other departments or brands will need your services. So if people see their colleagues commenting on your insightful posts, and you begin to engage with them on LinkedIn, they’re far more likely to hire you for that segment of the company.

3. ¶Partners/potential partners

Partnerships drive the world of B2B.

Often it can be hard to get in front of a potential client without an intro. And this is where partnerships come in. Or people who hang out with your ideal clients.

These people are often easier to build relationships with too, because they won’t have had thousands of pitches from people like you. Build relationships, share leads, create content together - these are all brilliant ways to build your network on LinkedIn.

4. ¶LinkedIn Influencers

Influential people on LinkedIn don’t necessarily have hundreds of thousands of followers and hundreds of likes on every post. In fact, these people are often using fake engagement pods and buying followers.

So how do you spot the real LinkedIn influencers?

• Look at their content. Does it seem genuinely helpful and insightful? Even if they’re fake influencers, if you’re getting actionable insights from their posts, it might be worth giving them a follow anyway. But most people who use dirty tricks like fake engagement and buying followers don’t have anything very useful to say.
• Look at their comments. Do they respond to comments on their posts? Do the comments sound like they’re from real people? If there are lots of one- or two- word comments like “Great post”, they’re probably in a fake engagement pod.
• Do they have hundreds of likes within minutes of posting? That’s a pretty good sign. But don’t forget, engagement pods are getting smarter - and they’re now drip-feeding engagement on people’s posts.

Don’t be too hard on yourself if you accidentally follow a fake influencer and engage with them for a while. We all make that mistake when we start using LinkedIn. It won’t take long to realise who the real LinkedIn influencers are - they’ll respond to your comment if you can add it quickly enough. And their followers will start interacting with you as well. If this isn’t happening after you’ve spent a while building a relationship with an influencer, move on and find someone else to spend your valuable time and insights on.

Quick tip: LinkedIn influencers have often reached the maximum number of connections (30,000), so they won’t be able to accept your connection request. But you can still follow them. Or you can use The Lime One to make sure you see their posts.

5. ¶Industry thought leaders

Industry thought leaders are slightly different to LinkedIn influencers. They’re influential, for sure, but in a smaller niche or industry. Their content usually works really well for people who are interested in that industry, but might be pretty boring for someone outside of it.

They can take time to find. But here are some tips:

• Use LinkedIn search to find content on topics in your industry. You’ll see lots of content posted on that topic. Scroll through and find out who’s posting interesting and insightful stuff
• Look at trade magazines and see who’s featured. Look at trade shows and events and see who’s speaking. Add them on LinkedIn
• Go to X (formerly Twitter) and type in {industry} and then sort by list. For example, the term “tech marketers” brings up hundreds of lists. From here, find the relevant people and then add them on LinkedIn

¶How much time to spend on each group?

Once you’ve decided who to add on LinkedIn, it’s time to nurture them. This means engaging with their content, sending them DMs, and potentially sending them useful stuff.

You might want to trial this for yourself, but here’s the split we use:

• 25% of our time - Potential clients
• 25% of our time - Clients
• 10% of our time - Partners/potential partners, or people who hang out with our ideal clients
• 20% of our time - LinkedIn influencers
• 20% of our time - Thought leaders in our industry

¶New connections worth cultivating

Not everyone you connect with is useful to cultivate as soon as you add them. Here’s a list of the people you should be building relationships with once you’ve connected:

• People who engage meaningfully with your content - even if they aren’t your ideal client, they’re helping to boost your content so they’re worth spending some time on
• Mutual connections - people who are connected to people you know are more likely to be in a similar industry, and easier to connect with
• LinkedIn Learning instructors in your field - this is a great way to find influential people in your industry
• Local business community members - IRL networking is just as important as URL networking. Make sure you connect with some local people too

¶When to say no to LinkedIn connection requests

Generally, you want to network with strangers on LinkedIn. But as you use the platform more, that 30,000 connection limit will seem smaller and smaller. Make sure you have relevant people in your network so you don’t have to go and remove random people in a few years’ time.

Here’s who to say no to:

• Random connection requests with no context
• Obvious sales pitches disguised as networking (if someone immediately tries to sell to you after connecting, block them)
• Profiles that seem fake or incomplete
• People outside your professional orbit (unless there's a clear reason)

¶Growing your LinkedIn network, one connection at a time

Here's the juicy truth: your LinkedIn network isn't a contacts list - it's a pipeline. The people you connect with today are the clients, partners, and opportunities you'll be working with six months from now. But only if you're intentional about who gets in.

The professionals who win on LinkedIn aren't the ones with the biggest networks. They're the ones who know exactly who they've connected with, why they connected, and when to follow up. That's the difference between a network that works for you and one that just... sits there, gathering digital dust.

Stop overthinking connection requests. Start building your professional orchard - and tend it like your business depends on it. Because it does.

Ready to nurture your LinkedIn network? Get your 14 day free trial of The Lime One.