Why Medium Has Convinced Me to Delete 815 LinkedIn Connections

A lesson I learned about the wrong way to build a network.

I began this story by first opening up LinkedIn to see that I have 1603 connections.

I now have 788.

Why take this step, how did I get to this point, and how does it relate to building a following on Medium, you ask?

Building an audience on Medium has been a bit more tedious than I anticipated. After a fairly quick start, the climb to 100 has stagnated, adding a few followers each day.

Since joining Medium I’ve wanted to make sure I built an audience the right way. I want my audience to grow through a sincere interest in my content and interaction, not through follow-for-follow methods. This ensures that I’m building an audience with a solid foundation, one that wants to grow with me in my writing journey.

I did not take this approach with professional networking via LinkedIn — hence, burning half of it down.

Through inorganic, follow-for-follow like growth on LinkedIn, I’ve learned that progress needs to be built through authentic interest and relationship, with anything less resulting in the mirage of success.

My LinkedIn growth journey

I began my staffing and recruitment career path in the summer of 2016. Recruiting nurses for contracted assignments throughout Western Pennsylvania, I quickly latched onto the idea of building a network on LinkedIn (and Facebook, for that matter).

My approach was simple — send connection requests to as many area nurses as possible — send an intro message to everyone that accepted — hope to drum up interest in further conversation about job opportunities.

Parts 1 and 2 worked well, growing my “following” by hundreds of people. Part 3 was less successful, with very few having a legitimate interest in job opportunities.

Undeterred, after moving into a Business Development role with an IT staffing firm, I took the same approach in building a network of client contacts.

Connection request — intro message — further conversation.

Results were mildly improved, with LinkedIn becoming the primary source of my appointment setting efforts. Yet it didn’t feel as if I was making any headway, spending a disproportionate amount of time scouring LinkedIn with little end results.

Finally, in my most recent previous role, I applied similar strategies for Business Development with less success. This was partially due to the industry and how networking works within it, but ultimately I continued to spin my wheels.

Within five years I grew from a few hundred LinkedIn connections to over 1600; however, the results were paltry in comparison to the efforts, and if anything I had an overinflated sense of pride for what I had “grown.”

The real issue at hand

The above may not seem like an actual problem. Who cares if I built a network of 1600 connections on LinkedIn? What’s the harm in it?

That’s where we’ll pivot to my posting and the interest generated from those efforts.

Of my last 6 LinkedIn posts (I use these because it’s the most consistent I’ve been with posting in quite some time) I’ve had the following results:

• 1,552 views
• 13 likes
• 0 comments

On average each of these posts has garnered: 258 views, 2 likes, and a goose egg for the comments column.

And that’s with 1603 connections.

Yep, quite a bit to be “proud” of.

Sure, it could be said that I need to post more consistently (these 6 posts happened over a 2 month period of time), or that I need to work on my content.

But I have a different theory at hand, one that my newfound Medium journey has helped me discover.

I built my network the wrong way

If the majority of my LinkedIn audience had any interest in what I was posting, I should at least obtain a modest level of likes.

This obviously has not been the case.

Instead, posts have gone generally unnoticed, and my network has not grown by a single follower or connection through it all.

The reason?

By building a network without providing any immediate, personal value, people have no idea what I actually do and how I can add value to their lives. The transaction ends when the other party accepts the request, only to realize that they aren’t interested in what I’m selling.

It would be a faux pas to immediately disconnect, so there they sit, forever in LinkedIn connection hell.

All the more reason to burn it down.

A better way to build a following

If I were to do it all again, (in a sense I am doing it all over again) my efforts would be focused on value over perceived results. Here’s how that would look:

1. Post content consistently
2. Keep content related to the value I can deliver others
3. Engage with anyone who interacts with my content
4. Send a connection request stating that I’d love it for them to be a part of my network
5. Rinse and repeat

Through this method, new followers/connections will know exactly who I am and what I’m about. They’ll know the value I can deliver and if it’s enough to accept a connection request. While I may not know them personally, the opportunity to expand the relationship is possible as they continue to interact with my content, further expanding my reach to others.

This approach, while slow, is authentic and value based. It flies in the face of the “get rich quick” mentality, instead forcing slow growth through the creation of a firm foundation of supporters.

My anti-follow-for-follow Medium growth strategy

Medium opened my eyes to the mistakes I made when creating a network of connections on LinkedIn. Determined to learn from my mistakes, I will not partake in the follow-for-follow strategy of reaching 100 followers and beyond.

Similar to above, my Medium growth strategy will work as follows:

1. Post content consistently
2. Keep content related to the value I can deliver others
3. Engage anyone who interacts with my content
4. Review their content and engage if it’s of appeal/interest to me
5. Follow those whose content provides value to me
6. Rinse and repeat

It’s slow, but it’s solid and steady. I’m in no hurry to grow and monetize Medium, realizing that I will be much better served by learning the ropes and developing my voice one story at a time.

May my story be a guide to you and your Medium journey. As they say, friends don’t let friends shortcut success by going the follow-for-follow route, or something like that.

If you made it this far and find value in my perspective, please comment, clap, and highlight away! I’m eager to engage with you and advance the value-based, organic growth model covered above. If you’d like to help me regrow my LinkedIn network, my profile can be found here.