6 free techniques for building an effective B2B network on LinkedIn

With more than 15 million active users in France, the professional social network LinkedIn has become an indispensable channel in B2B marketing. Used in particular to expand one's network, carry out competitive intelligence, or generate leads, the platform offers a multitude of possibilities. In this article you will find a collection of free techniques aimed at improving your networking power on this professional social network — at no cost whatsoever!

Download the free checklist for a LinkedIn profile that converts

In the face of the development of the various social networks and the changes in practices that flow from them, it is important for a business to develop its digital identity. Internet users now consult reviews extensively before making a purchase. Furthermore, building a solid network multiplies professional opportunities by a factor of 13. It is therefore essential to keep your LinkedIn profile polished in order to position yourself as a genuine expert and inspire trust.

Building a network of strong connections is an essential step that will allow you to open new avenues of contact, mobilise your community of followers, and get closer to your prospects. To do this, you will need to build a first-level network that includes:

• your personal network
• your recent and past professional contacts
• your past and current clients
• your prospects
• influential people in your market
• market prescribers

Here is a selection of 6 very useful tools and approaches for effectively building your network:

01 – Link your accounts

The goal is to have a minimum of 200 to 250 connections as a starting point. This first step will allow you to identify the various members of your network who have a LinkedIn profile themselves and who might be willing to recommend you based on a past collaboration.

These could also be friends who will be happy to boost your visibility within their circle by liking or commenting on your various posts.

02 – Review your stock of business cards and connect with the people relevant to your professional project.

Do not throw away the business cards you collect at your various professional events, as they can prove to be an excellent starting point for building your network. Moreover, there are now applications such as Camcard that allow you to digitise them and link them to your LinkedIn account, in order to automatically add contacts and suggest further connections. All that remains is to personalise your connection requests to facilitate the process.

03 – Review all your documents containing client data…

Do not throw away the business cards you collect at your various professional events, as they can prove to be an excellent starting point for building your network. Moreover, there are now applications such as Camcard that allow you to digitise them and link them to your LinkedIn account, in order to automatically add contacts and suggest further connections. All that remains is to personalise your connection requests to facilitate the process.

04 – Connect with every new person you meet through your activities, appointments, trade shows, etc.

What better way than to personalise your invitations by reminding the person in question that you met at a trade show, during a collaboration, or wherever it may have been? Show the people who visit your profile that you maintain good relationships with your former clients or industry peers. Furthermore, it is not impossible that a group related to that trade show has been created on LinkedIn. Stay alert to this and do not hesitate to create content in these groups to make your presence felt.

05 – Connect with alumni from your school or university

It is always strongly advisable to maintain relationships with former classmates from your school or university. This generally makes establishing contact considerably easier and allows for a more qualitative relationship at certain moments. Moreover, you are able to target more precisely thanks to the platform's algorithm, based on indexing, by searching by company, job title, skills, and so on. If you are looking for people who were part of your cohort, you can specify an exact academic year. Explore and observe the list of contacts that is suggested to you. You will thus have an excellent start when it comes to building a B2B network.

06 – Carry out a network audit using the names of your contacts

For the more enterprising among you, there is also the classic search function found on all social networks. Using the name and surname of your contacts, you can send them an invitation and then take a look at their circle. You will thus move into the second tier of your network.

Going further

Once your first-level network is well established, you will need to maintain your relationships and offer relevant content. Publishing several articles per week will allow you to generate far more traffic to your website (particularly via calls-to-action), and above all, many more views of your profile — and therefore more opportunities to forge connections. Take advantage of the platform's new features, such as the ability to post videos, GIFs, and more, to personalise your posts and draw attention to yourself and your activity.

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