Twitter followers are floozies, Facebook friends are fair weather. But I remember a day when a LinkedIn connection was someone you had, by God, done business with. And so your LinkedIn connections was a modern version of your Rolodex: People you could call in a pinch, who would help you out.
Standards, it appears, have slipped. I keep getting invitations to connect on LinkedIn from people I've never heard of. They've heard of me through Vital Speeches or my blog, I guess, and so they reach out. If they're a speechwriter, and thus might as well be from Timbuktu, I grant them access to my online family. It's good for me to be able to find them, and for them to be able to find me.
But I keep getting invitations from regular old communicators who I've never heard of, who want to connect with me on LinkedIn.
I turn them down.
But I'm not sure I should.
Readers, what's your policy on LinkedIn connections?
And has it evolved recently?
Talk to me.
I’m with you on LinkedIn. If someone I don’t know and haven’t worked with wants to connect, I reply to ask what the person wants without accepting the connection.
I agree. I tend to limit my LinkedIn connections to people I’ve actually worked with or at least met in some professional capacity. I break it down roughly like this: Facebook is for actual friends and family, LinkedIn is for colleagues, and Twitter is for random strangers – including those whose only real interest in following me is to add to the body count of their network in some futile quest for validation.
@Yossi: I bet that sends most of them packing, eh?
@Reuben: Becoming part of your network isn’t part of a “futile quest for validation,” Mr. Bronee. It is validation itself.