Comments on: My LinkedIn Connection Policy

By: Dan Banta

Dan Banta — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:41:13 +0000

I have to agree with your comments in that LinkedIn seems much more professional because of their restrictive approach. But the limitations may discourage some from becoming fully involved thus limiting the potential contact. I have to be careful since I’m in sales and don’t want to come across as just another “hungry” account executive.

By: Matthew Cornell

Matthew Cornell — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 12:23:29 +0000

I use the same policy, Scott, but I came across a situation I wasn’t sure about: I was invited to connect with someone I didn’t know, and sent my standard response, which is basically “Thanks for reaching out. Let’s chat a bit.” 90% of people don’t take me up on this, and we never connect on LI. This person *did* follow-up, we talked, and I decided to add him to my network. The problem? He’s a LION (LI Open Networker – first time I heard the expression). We talked about it, and he realizes the issue, and understands not connecting. I went ahead, but now I’m having doubts.

Any thoughts?

By: JibberJobber Blog » Blog Archive » I Use LinkedIn … But Don’t Preach To Me

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 14:09:26 +0000

[...] his personal connection policy on LinkedIn (which is pretty much what LinkedIn suggests, and Scott Allen endorses). But that’s not the point of Thom’s post, as far as I read. His point is that [...]

By: Seth Johnson

Seth Johnson — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 17:06:37 +0000

I agree that linkedin could benefit from some sort of tiered system. It seems that the strength of any social networking site is in its numbers and people are more apt to join the more connected they feel. While more professional sites, such as linkedin, do need to balance that social trend with the desire to have substance behind a connection, perhaps this could best be served by having one common “simple interaction” link (basically the equivalent of swapping business cards) and one business relationship level link (where you can honestly represent that you have substance to the connection). Even casual links are worth something in the business world and by restricting these types from any representation, linkedin falls short of a greater potential. At least that’s my humble opinion.

By: John Lohavichan

John Lohavichan — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 15:03:29 +0000

I use LinkedIn as my business card rolodex and will send an invite to those who I think are of value that I met and talked to at some event. This is much better than trying to flip through cards and organize them. Still to me linked in needs to allow you to have trusted and untrusted tiers so later I can easily move them into my circle of trust. Business networks are not static structures, its dynamic constantly shifting and any networking tool needs to account for this. This is one of my pet peeves with linkedin from a storing my contacts perspective. The other is from a storing my I’d like to network with “prospects” – it doesn’t seem to have a way for you to put folks into a process so you can save them for later contact or have nothing now but later might want to contact them. I usually just add these folks to my favorites and a note to myself. Otherwise I will forget how and why I thought they were interesting and who they were.

Thus I think everyone receives many connection requests because that’s what linked in motivates them to do – this is clearly something the system itself could help clear up with better workflow design and training.

By: Steve Tylock

Steve Tylock — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:46:38 +0000

I absolutely agree. My personal policy:

I network with everyone. I connect to people I have a trusted relationship with.

And the corollary:
Sending one email inviting me to connect because you found my address doesn’t mean we have a relationship…