LinkedIn Connections: How to Grow the Right Network

1. Make your LinkedIn profile look genuine

Related video: Watch the LinkedIn profile setup video before you start sending requests.

Before sending LinkedIn connection requests, look at your profile from the other person’s perspective.

They receive a request from someone they may not know. They open the profile. What helps them decide whether you are a real and relevant person?

Start with the basics:

• A clear profile photograph.
• A cover image that fits your professional identity.
• Your education details.
• Your work, internship, or project experience.
• A headline that explains what you do or what you are learning.
• A short About section that gives context.
• Relevant projects, certifications, portfolio links, or featured posts.

You do not need an extraordinary career to fill these sections. A student can explain what they are studying and what projects they have worked on. A working professional can describe their role and the kinds of problems they solve.

Give someone enough information to recognise that there is a real person behind the request.

2. Who should you connect with on LinkedIn?

Before asking how to get more connections on LinkedIn, ask yourself:

What kind of people do I want to learn from, work with, hire, collaborate with, or exchange ideas with?

A founder might connect with other founders, investors, startup operators, product leaders, marketers, and potential customers.

A marketer might connect with people working on brands, campaigns, content, growth, media, and consumer behaviour.

A student might connect with classmates, seniors, alumni, professors, recruiters, internship managers, and people working in fields they want to understand.

Useful LinkedIn connections usually fall into a few groups:

In the video, I described two ways of building this network:

I have used both.

3. How to grow your first 100 LinkedIn connections

If your profile is new, do not begin by messaging famous founders, CEOs, or people with no context.

Start with your existing circles:

1. Classmates.
2. College seniors and juniors.
3. Current colleagues.
4. Former colleagues.
5. Internship managers.
6. Professors or mentors.
7. People already in your phone or email contacts.
8. People you met at events, workshops, or communities.

These are the easiest first 100 LinkedIn connections because there is already some recognition.

Once you have that base, expand into the next circle: people with whom you share an institution, field, company, community, or professional interest.

You do not have to begin by approaching the most famous person in your industry. Build the network layer by layer.

4. Use alumni to build relevant LinkedIn connections

Your school or college gives you one of the cleanest starting points for LinkedIn networking.

In the video, I explain how to look up your institution’s LinkedIn page and use its alumni section to find people who studied there. LinkedIn’s official guide to the Alumni tab also describes it as a way to identify alumni and explore their professional profiles.

But if your college has 50,000 alumni, whom do you choose?

Use your professional field to narrow the search.

For example, if you work in marketing, look for alumni who have marketing, brand, growth, content, product marketing, or performance marketing in their profiles.

Now you have two reasons to connect:

1. You share an institution.
2. Their work is relevant to your direction.

A simple alumni search process

1. Find your school or college on LinkedIn.
2. Open its alumni section.
3. Search for your field or target role.
4. Review profiles before sending requests.
5. Connect with a few relevant people over time.

A shared college gives you a useful starting point. It does not mean every alumnus will accept your request, and it does not mean every alumnus belongs in your network.

5. Find people at companies you want to work with

The next layer is people at companies that interest you.

In the video, I use Google as an example. If I want to work in marketing at Google, I would look up the company on LinkedIn and use its people section to find professionals associated with marketing.

The same thinking applies to other companies you admire or want to work with.

Look beyond the company name

Once you find a profile, read it. What does the person actually do? Is their role relevant to your interests?

A company may employ thousands of people across very different functions. Your reason for connecting becomes clearer when you identify people working in an area you want to understand.

I have used this approach to connect with professionals at companies including Tesla, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, as well as entrepreneurs.

Those connections took time to build. An accepted LinkedIn connection request gives you a starting point for developing a professional relationship. It is not the relationship itself.

6. How many LinkedIn connection requests should you send?

My personal approach has been to send a few relevant requests regularly, often two or three in a day, rather than doing everything in one burst.

That is my routine. It is not an official LinkedIn limit.

LinkedIn says invitation limits exist to protect the member experience and keep requests relevant. It also says restrictions may happen when members reach limits, and recommends sending fewer, more thoughtful invitations. Read LinkedIn’s invitation limit guidance.

So the better question is not “what is the maximum number of LinkedIn connection requests I can send?”

The better question is:

Can I explain why this person belongs in my professional network?

If you cannot answer that, follow their work first.

What are LinkedIn connections?

LinkedIn connections are people in your professional network who have either accepted your invitation or whose invitation you have accepted. LinkedIn describes connections as first-degree relationships: once connected, both people can message each other directly and see each other’s posts and updates in their feeds.

That matters because a connection is more than a visible number on your profile. It affects who can message you, whose updates you may see, and how your professional network expands through second-degree connections.

This is why I do not recommend connecting with everyone randomly. A useful LinkedIn network is built around relevance.

LinkedIn connections vs followers

LinkedIn explains that connecting creates a two-way relationship, while following lets you see someone’s public posts without sending a connection invitation. LinkedIn’s own help page explains following and connecting here.

Both matter. My follower count shows the audience I have built. It does not tell you my current number of LinkedIn connections.

Write better LinkedIn connection requests

You do not need to write an essay. A useful LinkedIn connection request message is short, specific, and honest.

Use one of these simple structures:

The point is not to sound clever. The point is to show context.

Avoid:

• Sending the same message to everyone.
• Pitching immediately.
• Asking for a job referral before building any context.
• Pretending to know someone when you do not.
• Sending requests only because someone works at a famous company.

Use content and comments to attract LinkedIn connections

Outbound is only one part of how I have built my LinkedIn network.

The other part is sharing content that reflects what I notice and think about in my field.

As a marketer, I write about marketing campaigns, products, businesses, consumer behaviour, and distribution. These posts help people understand the kind of work and ideas I am interested in.

Start with something you actually noticed

In the video, I mention a post about BigBasket, Blinkit, and Zepto selling the iPhone 16.

That was a development I found interesting, so I wrote about it. The post brought people to my profile, and I received interest from people in marketing and business.

That is the connection to networking: a relevant observation can give another professional a reason to look you up.

A real example: my Ather Energy marketing post

On 10 September 2025, I published a post that opened with “Ather Energy needs better Marketing.”

The observation behind it was a mismatch between the innovation I saw in Ather’s product and the amount of conversation I saw around it. I discussed its Pothole Alert feature and explained why I felt the launch deserved more attention.

Read the original Ather Energy post.

The post’s analytics, captured on 2 October 2026, showed:

For this article, the useful result is that the post reached beyond my existing network and brought people to my profile. Some followed me.

The 130 followers gained are a measured result. The screenshot does not report connection requests, so I cannot assign a connection total to this post.

More examples from my LinkedIn content

Source: my LinkedIn post analytics screenshots, captured on 2 October 2026. These are totals shown for each post at capture, not results from equal time periods.

You can see that a bigger impression count does not automatically translate into proportionately more followers or connections. These examples show different results, not a guaranteed formula.

The wider picture

For 29 August 2025 to 2 October 2026, my LinkedIn content analytics showed:

These figures are why I can speak from experience about content helping people discover my profile. They do not measure how many professional relationships came from that discovery.

The advice I would take from my experience is simple:

Write about something relevant that you have actually thought about, and let your profile explain who you are.

Use thoughtful comments when you have something to add

You do not have to publish a post every time you want to contribute.

If you come across a post you like, add a thoughtful comment. Explain what resonated with you or contribute a relevant observation.

In the video, I specifically say that I would not force myself to comment purely to attract requests.

I would take the same approach today. Contribute when you have something to say. That contribution can help the author and other readers understand your perspective.

A simple weekly LinkedIn networking routine

Here is how I would put the advice into practice:

You do not need to attempt all of this in one sitting.

Start with your profile. Then choose one group and find a few people you would genuinely like to connect with.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I grow LinkedIn connections from zero?

Complete your profile first, then start with classmates, colleagues, former colleagues, and people you already know. After that, find alumni in your field and professionals at companies that interest you. Send relevant requests consistently instead of trying to connect with everyone at once.

Who should I connect with on LinkedIn?

Connect with people who have a real professional connection to your life or goals: classmates, colleagues, alumni, mentors, people in your field, people at companies you admire, and people whose work you genuinely follow. Avoid building a random network only to increase the number on your profile.

How can I get more LinkedIn connections fast?

The safest approach is still gradual: make your profile credible, start with people who know you, use alumni and company searches, and contribute through posts or comments. Fast growth through random requests can reduce relevance and may trigger LinkedIn’s invitation restrictions.

What is the difference between LinkedIn connections and followers?

Connections are two-way professional relationships. Followers can see your public posts without becoming part of your network in the same way. This is why a follower count and a connection count should not be treated as the same metric.

How many LinkedIn connection requests should I send per day?

I often sent two or three relevant requests in a day as part of my own routine, but that is not an official LinkedIn limit. LinkedIn recommends thoughtful invitations and may restrict accounts that hit invitation limits. Focus on relevance rather than volume.

Should I follow or connect with someone on LinkedIn?

Connect when you know the person, have met them, share a clear professional context, or have a genuine reason to message them. Follow when you do not know the person yet but want to learn from their posts before reaching out.

Do I need to post content to grow LinkedIn connections?

No. You can start by sending relevant connection requests to people you know or people with clear professional overlap. Content gives people another way to discover your profile, understand your thinking, and decide whether to connect.

How can students build LinkedIn connections?

Students can start with classmates, seniors, professors, internship managers, alumni, and people working in fields they want to explore. A student does not need a long work history; a clear profile, project details, and a specific reason to connect are enough to begin.

What should I write in a LinkedIn connection request?

Write one or two lines that explain the context. Mention a shared college, mutual field, post you read, event you attended, or reason their work is relevant. Keep it specific and avoid pitching immediately.

Does a successful LinkedIn post lead to more connections?

It can bring people to your profile and encourage some of them to follow or connect, but it is not guaranteed. My Ather marketing post recorded 802 profile viewers and 130 followers gained; the analytics did not report how many connection requests came from that post.

Start with people you have a reason to connect with

If you came here wondering how to grow LinkedIn connections, begin with a clearer answer to who you want in your network.

Make your profile genuine. Connect with familiar people. Find alumni and professionals whose work is relevant to you. Keep reaching out consistently, and contribute ideas that reflect your interests.

My network developed over time through both reaching out and being discovered. Your first step can be much smaller:

Find a few relevant people today and start there.

Watch the explanation: How to build Connections on LinkedIn? Grow your Network.

You can find me on LinkedIn and see the kinds of observations I share.

Sources and Further Reading