Are you one of those Open Networkers who proudly showcase 1000+ LinkedIn connections?
Or perhaps you just want more connections on LinkedIn, for some career/job search related purpose, and are trying to greatly/quickly increase the number of your connections.
Well then, these LinkedIn tips are especially for you.
It is important to go for quality, rather than quantity when building your LinkedIn network. You might have a huge number of connections but what’s the point if you can’t put that network to good use.
Here are some quotes from the LinkedIn Tips blog to illustrate this point:
“You can ask someone to join your network by sending them an invitation to connect. If they accept your invitation, they become a 1st-degree connection. We recommend that you only send invitations to people you know well.”
“People are accomplishing great things on LinkedIn, and in every case that we’ve learned about, it has been because of one thing – the strength of the trusted relationship, and how LinkedIn can put that to work for you. So why can connecting to anyone and everyone be counter productive?As we’ve talked about before, growing your LinkedIn ecosystem to reflect your real world business connections is critical since it defines the people you’d recommend and support, even if it means putting your professional reputation on the line.
The great thing about only connecting to people you know, trust, and have experience working with, is that when you need to find that expert, get that answer, reference check a potentially great hire, get that introduction, then the trusted network of people you’ve proactively created on LinkedIn can help you out. I find that a simple but useful analogy is a tapestry. The stronger and tighter the individual threads, the stronger the overall piece of cloth becomes.”
So it is advisable to be selective when you send out and accept invitations to connect. Build your online network with the same standards as your network in the real world. They are one and the same, to quite an extent.
You might want to have a look at your existing LinkedIn network and do a bit of spring cleaning as well, keeping only the good/relevant connections.
Also, you could think of a set of criteria based on which you will add people to your network. For me, the chances of adding a person to my LinkedIn network increase if:
- I have met/spoken with the person before
- I see the possibility of some professional give-and-take in the future
- I would be happy for other people to see that person as my connection
- I would be able to recommend the person or their services to others
Topics: LinkedIn Tips, LinkedIn Tricks
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