Save time on your networking routine with this 5-minute guide — written by Alena Lysiakova.

Linkedin is ideal for lead hunting, building in public and business networking. This only holds true if you know how to find the right contacts and how to connect without scaring them away.

In this short guide, I present a simple routine that helps founders grow daily on the platform.

There are two types of contact you need to focus on in Linkedin: potential leads/customers and people who are eager to learn and interact with you – your tribe or fans or community.

First contacts may stay silent on your feed, but they bring the money. The second ones engage regularly, but may not become customers at all.

Don’t focus on just one of them. You need both types of contacts to grow your business on Linkedin.

You must know your ideal customer as soon as you start marketing your product or service online, but if you’re not sure yet, it’s a great place to finally look for it.

To create this ideal persona answer these questions:

Repeat the same process for the second persona — your potential devoted follower or fan.

Now you are all set to look for your ideal target audience!

The people are here waiting for you on Linkedin. You just need to find them. And the Linkedin search can help you with it.

Start by typing in the keyword that you can apply to your ideal customer. For example, “founder”. Then click on the “All filters” tab to access the advanced search options.

You’re looking for 2nd and 3d connections. If you have people you want to borrow an audience from — add their profiles too to look for their connections specifically.

The same goes for some creator followers that you want to hack for the audience.

Play with other filter options. Add industries, topics people talk about, languages, countries, and so on.

That’s it — this completely free feature provides you with an extensive flow of new contacts!

Just don’t mindlessly press “connect” on all the profiles you’ve found! You need to become acquainted with a person first to build the initial connection and trust.

Before connecting with some big accounts, follow them and study their pages. If people are sharing some content, start replying to it. Visit the page in a week or so to get attention, only then press “Connect” and add a custom message about why you’re reaching out.

DM the people you’ve found

Tell these people what you love about their accounts, and what messages you can relate to, or thank them for providing some insights.

Never sell in the first DM. Build a connection with a conversation instead.

For smaller accounts, you can skip the weekly stalking and just write one comment and hit connect. Still, even here I advise you to create custom DMs for each outreach you make.

Of course, there is no way to be sure that each person you connect with will ultimately fit into leads or tribe categories. It’s ok to be wrong. If you see that this contact isn’t bringing anything valuable to you or your business, or if they post something completely irrelevant to your interests and industry on the feed — disconnect this person.

You need to filter your connections and curate your feed at least once a month to keep it efficient and growing in the direction you need.

If you’re an active founder sharing your startup journey online, people will reach out to you too. But before you have a very big community and your product becomes a hit on Linkedin, you should add new contacts to both of your audiences yourself too.

It doesn’t take much time to add 4-6 people a day, but the routine helps you to attract more and more peers and customers.

Looking for more networking, copy and content tips? Join Alena’s Copy & Coffee community ☕️