I have 15,000 contacts on LinkedIn. Now what?

I’ve reached a big milestone, or goal: more than 15,000 contacts. But now, what can I do?

Easy: keep them, try to add value for them in some way, and not be just a number to them.

But with such a large and diverse database, it’s clearly no easy task.

Could I have more contacts? Without a doubt, but I’ve turned down a huge number of connection requests because they didn’t fit the community I’m building. Years ago I was clear about which contacts could add to my network and bring me something, now or in the future.

Are you clear about what kind of contacts you want, need, or who might need you?

I am. At 52, I’m clear about what my IKIGAI is: what I love, what I’m good at, what I get paid for and where I can leave a mark. (But take a closer look at what IKIGAI is and how to find yours. My friend Nacho Villoch was my teacher in this.)

My professional goals:

1. To accompany entrepreneurs as a mentor as they grow their projects and companies.
2. To train highly experienced professionals so they can become good mentors.
3. To awaken the entrepreneurial bug, but with impact, mainly in university students.
4. To share my experience as an intrapreneur with employees of SMEs and multinationals.
5. To enjoy myself as a speaker, master of ceremonies and event host.
6. To share my tips on the art of networking, which I’ve been practising since I started working.

So, based on your professional goals, and why not your personal ones too, build a community (not a database, as I said before) that is 100% consistent with what you want to achieve.

In my case, what use is a contact from a country and sector with which I have no connection or interest? Why should I accept a contact who has no photo, or a rather unprofessional one, and who says practically nothing in their profile? Why accept contacts who don’t take enough time to look at my profile and tell me why they want to connect?

And what else can I do with 15,000 contacts?

It’s a respectable number, and if you’ve been consistent and focused, they’ll have a lot in common and will be valuable to you and perhaps to some brands and companies. In other words, you can become a micro-influencer.

I’ve been one for years thanks to Socialpubli. But careful: I only take part in campaigns for products, services and companies that I trust, that I would hire and that I think may interest my community. If you want to be a micro-influencer and monetise your network, click here.

Some figures about my LinkedIn network that may make it interesting.

Of the 15,000 contacts…

1. More than 2,000 are from outside Spain. In other words, I’ve put some real effort in internationally
2. More than 2,000 hold the position of CEO, mainly of startups
3. Nearly 1,000 say they are the founder of their company
4. More than 3,000 are directors, so they call the shots in their company
5. And more than 2,000 hold the title of manager, so they’re senior people in their company
6. In the partners category, nearly 900 (most of them in the investment sector, funds)
7. Note: almost 500 describe themselves as investors (one of my main targets)
8. Nearly 1,000 work in marketing (where I trained and have worked for a long time)
9. Likewise with sales, where I have another 1,000 contacts
10. Finally, my focus for the last 8 years, innovation, where another 1,000 hold that responsibility

And switching categories, I was surprised to see that almost 400 of my contacts are in the USA, 300 in the UK, 170 in Germany, 140 in France, 120 in Mexico and 100 in Portugal.

And if I ask LinkedIn about sectors: more than 5,000 are in Professional Services, 2,000+ in Technology (one of my passions), 2,000+ in my other passion, EDUCATION, and 1,700 in Business Consulting. In other words, every sector I’ve worked in.

What else can you do?

Create your own community, in this case a LinkedIn group, so you have a select group on a topic where you are an expert or a recognised professional. In my case I chose the Edtech sector without a doubt, and it already has almost 500 members. I have the same number on a monthly newsletter on Mailchimp: Take a look.

Now it’ll be up to you to keep that community alive and share at least weekly news, events and valuable content. And if you find standout members, promote them to moderators.

But it’s not all about LinkedIn… on Twitter, or X, I have 7,000 followers whom I try to look after, as well as just over 1,000 on Instagram and as many again on Facebook.

How do you manage your network? Will you join mine if it makes sense to you? My LinkedIn profile

Happy networking!