I always say that LinkedIn is like a plant that keeps growing and you have to water it in order for it to flourish.

That means not just buying a plant and putting it on your windowsill – or creating a LinkedIn profile – and hoping for the best.

You actually have to water a plant – and that means also cultivating your LinkedIn presence and network.

Getting from 100 connections to 500+ can seem impossible. But if you divide that number over many weeks or months, it won’t seem so insurmountable.

And of course quality always matters more than quantity when it comes to your LinkedIn connections and posts.

Here’s how to build a strategic plan for finding contacts, building your network and increasing your connections on LinkedIn. When you’re ready to take the next step, here are 15 ways to be more successful on LinkedIn.

Using this framework, commit to growing your network by five connections per week. I know you can!

• Add your LinkedIn URL to your email signature – this will drive traffic to your LinkedIn profile and facilitate new connections. Be sure to customize your vanity URL so it’s easy to remember and looks clean and modern.

• As we navigate back toward doing business in person and going to conferences, be sure to make the most of these opportunities. Follow up on in-person networking opportunities by connecting on LinkedIn soon after meeting someone in person to extend the relationship.

• Follow your former firms/companies, alumni groups and trade associations and search for contacts through their company pages.

• Review your connections’ connections – who do they know who you know? Connect with them – it’s also okay to connect with people with whom you haven’t been in touch in a long  time – it’s expected especially in a post-Covid world.

• Utilize LinkedIn’s ”People You May Know” feature – the more you use it and the more connections you have, the better it works. I find this to be a great tool.

• Go through your Outlook address book and make sure you are connected to important contacts on LinkedIn and vice versa.

• Just like optimizing your website for SEO, LinkedIn enables you to do the same with keywords so that you can be found in searches on its platform. Strategically use words that describe what you do.

• Connect with individuals who have viewed your LinkedIn profile (but only if you know them)

• Regularly write content valuable to your connections and share it with a brief synopsis

• Engaging with current connections puts your profile directly in front of them – all it takes is a “like” or comment on their posts. So like and share others’ posts and congratulate others on their successes, especially your VIP connections (such as referrals and clients).

• Images increase engagement on LinkedIn posts – people connect with people – so don’t be afraid to use your likeness in your social posts.

• Congratulate the successes of your network through the notifications section. Monitor job moves, promotions, job anniversaries and other professional milestones and use them to reignite relationships.

• Posting more often creates additional opportunities for engagement, thus syndicating your content across home page feeds. Don’t be too concerned about annoying people by posting regularly. LinkedIn’s algorithms are tricky, and your network isn’t likely to see every post.

• Join the alumni groups of former firms and schools, which can help you reestablish and grow relationships.

• Post a status update on LinkedIn when you travel to another city for work or for a conference so you can easily connect with others in the area.

• Join and post content of value in LinkedIn groups. When used strategically, LinkedIn groups can help amplify your content and connect you to the right people.

When a connection likes, shares or comments on your status update, their connections are more likely to see your original post in their feed. If they like your content, your 2nd-degree connections may even send an invitation to connect with you.

Regularly posting on LinkedIn creates additional opportunities for engagement, which essentially syndicates your content on LinkedIn and makes you more discoverable. If you see that someone liked a post of yours, don’t be afraid to connect with them – you already have a connection point with them.

Also, don’t be too concerned that you are too visible to your network by posting every day. LinkedIn’s algorithm makes it very hard to spam people – and there’s really no way for every connection to see each of your posts. Plus if you are providing value, then that’s a good thing and your network will want to hear from you. If not, they can unfollow you or just keep scrolling their news feed.

Getting to 500+ LinkedIn connections won’t happen overnight, and if you’re already there, keep going! Online networking has never been more important to stay top-of-mind and build connections, your brand and business, especially on LinkedIn, the most important business social media platform today.

And take a look at this blog post in which I talk about how LinkedIn has directly led to new business and opportunities for me.

Which of these tips have worked best for you and which will you try today?