'new way' luckily works for me as I'm not targeted on the 'old way' metrics. I try to challenge myself to be consistent e.g. find loads of people with the same job role in my target company and connect/send a targeted message to them. Loads of connection requests / messages need to be sent in order to have some success. I find it important to do this in the background in order to get some new leads in. Also when they connect they'll get visibility in your network's posts and potentially they'll sign up to something that interests them