Another LinkedIn post, I think I could be getting a bit obsessed. I’m a big fan of the service: not so much the features it has to offer (and certainly not the changes they made to the Groups recently); instead I’m of the firm belief that its greatest strength lies in its users, and the relationships that exits between them.
I also believe that there is no “correct” way to use LinkedIn: while it’s pretty clear that LinkedIn exists as a tool to help create and develop relationships between individuals, it’s not prescriptive about the nature of those relationships, or about who you do or don’t try and connect with (LinkedIn does certainly try to be prescriptive, but it largely fails to do so). Humans aren’t so big on specialisation (leave that to the insects): we’re very good at adapting tools for our own purposes, and I think this is particularly evident in the way people use social media today. It’s my opinion that your use of LinkedIn should reflect the way you build professional relationships offline.
For my own part, I place most value on the strength and integrity of the relationships in my immediate network, i.e. those users who I’m directly connected with. I know people in my network well (some more so than others), but to a greater or lesser extent, have a good handle on what they’re passionate about, and what areas their capabilities lie in. Because of this I can help bring people in my network together where I think it’s beneficial to do so. It also means that if someone in my network asks me to introduce them to someone else in my network, I can do so with a reasonable level of assurance that they’re not a crazed nut-job, or even worse, merely trying to sell them something.
Not everyone uses LinkedIn this way. For some people, LinkedIn is a numbers game, whether it be for ego or to help them open doors: more power to them (and no judgement!), but it’s not for me. I’ve been using a standard boilerplate response to connection requests that I’m not accepting, as per below:
Hi <name>,
Many thanks for your invitation to connect on LinkedIn. I’m afraid I’m going to have to turn down the offer at this time, as I have a rule that I only connect with people I’ve had some previous interaction with outside of LinkedIn – we’ve met at a conference, talked on the phone, chatted on Twitter, etc. – or have come to me with a recommendation from an existing connection. This means that if someone is looking for an introduction to one of my connections, I’ve some basis upon which to make the recommendation, which in turn helps keep a high level of trust in my network.
This doesn’t mean I’m looking to end all communication between us – if there is something in particular you were looking to contact me about drop me an email to <work_email>.
I hope you understand and appreciate my position on this.
Kind regards, David
I’ve been using this template response for a number of months now, and I’ve had some pretty interesting conversations arise out of it – in fact, some of these conversations have formed the basis of new connections, which developed as the rights and wrongs of my position were argued back and forth. Some people never get back to me, most people are broadly accepting of my position, and a small number of people seem to take offence at my decision, which I have to say, baffles me completely. I readily confess that I haven’t always used LinkedIn this way: there’s definitely some people that I connected with when I first began using it that I had never met before, but I think at this stage I have met most of these people.
Interested to hear what others make of this, or how you manage your connections on LinkedIn. I’d also like to make it unambiguously clear that the contents of this post and my general position on using LinkedIn do not in any way represent the views or policy of my employer.
