LinkedIn: A Connection Tip For Nurturing Your Network

Posted by: Krishna De | Posted on: January 29th, 2009 | 6 Comments | Posted in: Communication, Networking online, Social networking

I’ve written about this before, and I am sure I will continue to say it again and again and again….. LinkedIn is NOT like Twitter.

At Twitter we can follow anyone we would like and then it’s up to them if they want to follow your conversation.

LinkedIn however is a much more closed network and connections there are by invitation.

Today I hit frustration point though. Most days someone sends me an invitation to connect with them on LinkedIn and that’s great as I certainly want to nurture my network there. I share my LinkedIn details on my website, my business card, my social networking profiles, my email addresses. I just have not adorned my LinkedIn profile address on my T-shirt yet!

On my profile I am really clear about who I would like to connect with and also the fact that I am really happy to connect people and connect them in turn to my network – but please take the time to introduce yourself to me.

Probably 80 percent of the invitations I receive are the standard LinkedIn message:

I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

I always then check out the person’s profile and if they are someone I know then I’ll probably accept the invitation. If I don’t know them then I usually write a message back to ask for more information about why they would like to connect – as I mention on my LinkedIn profile:

If we haven’t met, I am open to connecting but please send an introductory note providing a little information about your background and how we would both benefit from connecting – a standard LinkedIn request to connect won’t be responded to.

Today however like many of us using social networking for business, I was feeling time starved and I was ready to hit the ‘I do not know this person’ button. If someone has a number of people do this to them then their privileges on LinkedIn will be reduced and ultimately you might be banned from LinkedIn.

But instead of hitting the button, I wrote a note to my Twitter network to see if it was just me who is frustrated by the impersonal approach of the standard invitation. I was interested to see that most people are also frustrated by the lack of time and attention people pay to connecting on LinkedIn.

You can see their responses here:

Social networking is free and increasingly more of us are joining social networks. And while there may not be a 400 page rule book, it does not mean that should jump in and forget all the good manners we were taught as children.

After all at an offline networking event don’t you take the the time to introduce yourself and say who you are and what you do when meeting someone, then look for shared interests and common ground from where to nurture your relationships?

What I’ve come to realise is that no one (or very few) people read our profiles and connection preferences before connecting to us. I am not sure hitting the ‘I don’t know this person’ button is the right answer either.

Perhaps it’s up to us all who have been using LinkedIn for business for some time to continue to help our new connections there – perhaps sharing articles and tips about best practice or by demonstrating good practice when we reach out and connect to others.

How do you respond when someone you don’t know sends you the standard invitation to connect on LinkedIn?