Connecting and interacting online
Online connections develop through personal introductions, useful contributions and continued contact. Professional networks can bring work through existing relationships, new contacts and referrals.
Personal introductions and useful exchanges
A connection request should include a personalised message explaining why the sender wants to connect, because some people will not accept invitations from strangers without one. The language should suit the audience: academics and business owners may need different approaches.
Conversations should begin with a subject, such as an update to best-practice guidelines or a journal article. Giving something before asking for something can mean endorsing a skill, saying that an article was appreciated or asking about the person's work. Tagging professionals in relevant articles or discussions can prompt them to engage. Knowing the niche and engaging with people relevant to it helps focus this activity.
One freelance writer preferred sharing useful content over paid advertisements or direct offers of services: posts highlighted a webinar being given, people being met or an article written, to show what the writer could do. The same writer considered that business owners might welcome a more assertive marketing style, whereas academics wanted evidence of previous work rather than a sales approach. Another professional's view was that excessive marketing could turn clients away and make branding look generic or written by a public relations firm rather than an individual.
Maintaining and widening a network
LinkedIn connections let freelances update clients and contacts on their activities, follow job moves and reach people their contacts know.
A freelance editorial-services provider's LinkedIn network in 2013 had largely replaced a card index and then an email contact list of former colleagues, clients and other freelances. Updates showed when contacts changed jobs and informed them of added skills, experience and qualifications without an emailed CV. More than 90% of the connections were people the writer had met or worked with; invitations went to people after a couple of working encounters, and to recruiters, agency staff and freelances met at conferences or networking events. Watching existing contacts’ new connections also helped rediscover former publishing and laboratory colleagues.
A broader approach also brought work: a freelance medical writer who had used LinkedIn since 2010 kept connections who moved outside the writer's work focus and, within reason, accepted invitations from people outside it. Connections led to phone or video calls and then assignments, from immediate contacts or through longer chains of introductions. The writer regarded networking as promoting trust as much as promoting services, and used video calls as a way to meet people face to face.
Participation in groups and discussions
In 2013, contributing to an EMWA LinkedIn-group discussion served several purposes for one freelance: contacts were reminded of the writer, potential clients beyond the immediate network saw the name and freelance status, and the discussion added to the writer's understanding of the subject. The same writer posted meeting attendance to find contacts attending, followed updates for opportunities to renew relationships and contributed thoughts or experiences when they added value. When another participant had already expressed the writer's view, a like was sufficient; participation was followed by more profile views and invitations from other group members.
Advice on LinkedIn participation in 2018 was to:
- Help clients find the freelance by building a large network.
- Share relevant articles, photographs and updates.
- Comment on and share connections' posts and articles.
- Join groups that clients and colleagues belong to.
A different recommendation in 2021 favoured meaningful comments over likes for building relationships, reserving an emoji reaction for acknowledging a reply to an earlier substantive comment. A meaningful comment might identify which tip from a productivity article the commenter planned to try or what had been learned. Comments displayed the commenter's name and the start of the headline and enabled interaction with the poster and other commenters. Tagging the poster helped bring the comment to their attention, and a later connection request could mention the shared discussion.
The 2021 tagging instructions were:
- Type the @ symbol.
- Type the beginning of the person’s name.
- Choose the name from the list LinkedIn provides.
Prospecting and following up
In 2017, one freelance reported gaining several clients by inviting potential clients who had viewed the LinkedIn profile to connect; the reasoning was that viewers had already shown interest but might be too busy to send an invitation. Minimum LinkedIn activity recommended in 2018 combined a client-focused profile, building connections to appear more often in searches, and checking and connecting with profile viewers.
A freelance with 17 years' experience offered the following LinkedIn marketing advice in 2017.
- Write the profile well and include a professional headshot, treating it as an introduction to clients.
- Connect with everyone who makes contact, everyone already known and everyone the freelance would like to know.
- Research companies in the relevant field, identify the right person and send a letter of introduction through paid InMail, or ask a mutual connection for an introduction.
- Research clients who make contact.
- Follow connections and comment on their career changes, articles and other updates.
- Ask satisfied clients for a recommendation rather than an endorsement.
- Share writing samples on the profile.
- Publish blog posts through LinkedIn's publishing tool, where people beyond the immediate connections can read them.
- Share blog links and relevant articles in groups, such as pharmaceutical-marketing groups, and participate in their discussions.
The same advice recommended a paid account to identify profile viewers for follow-up and obtain InMail messages.
How work reached the writer
After losing a long-term job, a medical and veterinary writer contacted former colleagues by email but lacked the address of one contact not spoken to for about two years. A Facebook message reached that contact, who replied immediately, offered work and renewed the friendship. The writer regarded this as luck as well as networking: the contact rarely used Facebook and had logged in to see a friend's holiday photographs.
An editor who began using LinkedIn in November 2006 and Facebook and Twitter in January 2009 gained clients through all three, including a Twitter contact who sent editing projects and invited the editor to co-author a book. The editor posted about subjects edited, unnamed clients and editorial ethics, shared publishing-industry and biomedical news, and used Twitter to demonstrate expertise rather than directly ask for work. Marketing tips posted in May and June 2009 attracted freelances and publishers both for their usefulness and for what they showed about the editor's treatment of clients.
The publisher had several high-profile projects to finish on schedule, was between editors and had no previously used local freelances available, so contacted editors the company followed on Twitter. This editor stood out through continuing participation in technical-writing and editing discussions and a freely available Copyeditors' Knowledge Base for freelances at all levels.