Once you have done your search and found some potential connections, the next step is to connect with them. When you go onto someone's profile, you will find there are two options: connect with them or follow them.
CONNECT VS. FOLLOW
Before we dive into how you can send effective connection requests, it's important to understand the two options that you have.
Follow – You can follow someone on LinkedIn, which will allow you to see everything they post/like/comment/share. They'll appear on your LinkedIn feed as if you were connected. However, you will be unable to message them directly (unless you have LinkedIn Sales Navigator and can InMail them).
Connect – This is where you will send them a connection request, and if they accept, you will be directly connected, meaning you will see everything I mentioned above, but will also have the opportunity to message them.
The ideal situation is to obviously be connected where you can then send direct messages to them. However, in my experience, sometimes the higher up the corporate chain the person is, the less likely they are to accept your connection request, no matter how well you customize it.
In those cases, following them first on LinkedIn for a couple of weeks, engaging with a few of their posts (liking and commenting on a few) and then sending a connection request can dramatically ...
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