Blogger’s Note: This is the second in a two-part serial on approaching these titled populations in ways I hope enlighten or spur energy from you, to them, to open new channels of communication, or reignite interaction after a hiatus. I have made my 2025 mantra, “you have to nourish to flourish.” You can emulate that too. External audiences will be covered tomorrow.

Broadly, LinkedIn injects your thought leadership into multiple audiences, but only if you invoke their attention and imagination, for that purpose, and to rise above the noise, I believe it is worthwhile addressing them on LinkedIn: by planning, executing, editing, and approaching them carefully, thoughtfully, with the intent to impress on them why they should spend time with you, communicating something inspiring or educational to them.

Your ultimate goal: to elicit them corresponding, communicating, conversing around a topic for both parties, you and especially them, to benefit from.

Please bear with me, I have a lot to say here. And I have an “ask” in the last sentence too.

External audiences you should recognize, somewhat ordered in terms of degrees closeness to you:

  • The lurkers, who read you or approach you for their own hunting agenda. I have posted on LinkedIn for years and every unrequested inquiry to do business with me, which is solely to sell me something they perceive I need but I think the opposite–worse, every touch from them that has not squared in my mind that they are at all business-worthy for their nuclear warhead “sign here”, these are the scoundrels I reject, block, and report. Because we all must stop this abuse. LinkedIn does a mediocre job of stopping it. Not mincing words as you see. So I will continue to block and report.
  • The unsolicited commenters, who need to impress an opinion is stronger than others. Regardless of your knowing them, after reviewing their profile I think you can thank them and agree with additional comments on top of theirs, or if there is a conflict, use  words, comment back (always and ever-politely and -professionally), and exit the conversation. You will never win a war of words, the energy to do so can be best expended in positive pursuits..
  • The likers, who click emojis: smiley faces or clapping hands or thumbs up and then leave. There is no indication to you why they agree, on what grounds they have the experience to do so, nor providing you any inkling how you have helped them in some way. Sad that LinkedIn has stooped to this lowest common denominator level.
  • Your far-off admirers, yes the ones you may never meet, who recognize your value but either live so far away from you or have no intention of ever discussing professional viewpoints with you. Like the standup comics say, “I know you are out there,, I can hear you breathing.” The glory of them finally finding the right time and circumstance to reach out to you saying they have been following you for x years and now need your services is sublime. Sublimely rare. But it does happen to me and I hope if not already, to you someday.
  • Your fellow alums, repeating a mention of this population from yesterday’s post on internal folk, but in today’s context of externals, the ones that you do not know. But to be sure, your attending the same institution means you shared an nostalgic experience there, so peruse the alums and reach out to offer to converse how you can help each other, a two-way street, no strings attached. I wish you success because it’s greased up for you before you even start.
  • Same goes for fellow employees in the same company somewhere along your career, even if you did not coincide. Build on it who you know in common, or what you worked on while there. It’s amazingly easy to make that the fulcrum of a conversation that can become a foment a connection. I just did that, in fact, and although we did not work there the same years, we had lost to recall as formative for our career growth.
  • Your string of prospects who never “bit,” who looked like good business opportunities,  but never came to pass, but they still are out there and although you have no direct interaction with except that somewhere along the line they decided your works were worthy of passively receiving, to learn from you through osmosis, and it’s your adventure to convert them to clients if you target them in your teachings and your call-to-action is “now is the time to tap into me, just a click is all it takes.” Congratulate them on a promotion or some other LinkedIn good news but remind them how you offered to help them, and suggest you take it further, in tandem. Will they bite? Perhaps, depending on their pain threshold and the quality of your approaching them. Ghosting is common, so be the friendliest ghoul they read.
  • Your fellow network members, yes some are internal supporters and others are external or low-attendance starers, so approach these outliers to schedule a conversation and offer your LinkedIn profile URL for a more educational and enthusiastic conversation. Ya nevah know…
  • People who have never rung your bell, but asked “how can I read you more often?”  There you have it folks, LinkedIn’s remedy to overcome the algo monster that used to decide what you see and when, for you. The bell allow them to opt for either of 2 settings to see your material immediately when it is released to LinkedIn.
  • Finally, the closest and often ignored, “coopetors” colleagues in the same line of work, who compete and cooperate while umbilically connected to you by your career area(s) of concentration. Whom is there to better know that they may not concentrate on exactly what you do and can refer you for that perfect match to a need someone has, or a firm seeks? A referral to a law firm by a direct competitor who was not comfortable working in that specific industry due to the expertise needed, referred me and my gig went for over a year. Just be sure to return the favor, which I have twice.

OK, now I ask you, what group(s) have I missed in this list, and how have you been able to make meaningful connections by posting and commenting on LinkedIn? Yes, please reply to this query.