Life on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a social networking site used for professional networking. LinkedIn was created to be a place to connect with all the people in your professional network that you know or have worked with. It was also supposed to be a way to see who your 6 degrees of separation business connections were, which could be useful to get introductions to people in your field.
LinkedIn has turned in to a business mixer type of place, kind of like a Chamber of Commerce cocktail party. You can join groups on LinkedIn and participate in discussions related to your profession or interest. LinkedIn is a great way to make new contacts as well as connect with past ones. I’m fine with this evolution of LinkedIn. However, not everyone respects the original mission of LinkedIn.
What I don’t like is the people on LinkedIn who have forgotten about common courtesy when networking. If you were at an in person networking event would you walk up to a stranger and say. “BUY THIS PRODUCT THAT I AM SELLING NOW”? I hope not. Would you walk up to a stranger and hand them your business card before even introducing yourself to them? I hope not. Why do people feel it is okay to behave that way online?
I constantly get invitations to connect on LinkedIn from total strangers. They don’t introduce them self, in fact, they don’t even say hi. They just send me a request to connect. Why?
Tip: Introduce yourself when inviting someone to connect on LinkedIn. Say hello. Tell the person where you found them and why you are interested in connecting.
Don’t be this guy:
Do I dare post this on my LinkedIn page? This is a pet peeve of mine. I’m ignoring such a request right now but…you know what? I’m going to do it.
Go for it Alana! I posted it to my LinkedIn page and noticed I got 3 new generic invites from complete strangers. Seems they didn’t even look at my profile before sending the invite. I moderate a very large blogging group on LinkedIn I cannot tell you how MUCH junk I have to weed through everyday in spammy promotional posts.
I connect with very few people on Linked in. I reserve it exclusively for business connections. I never accept invitations from people that I don’t know or with whom I have not worked. I don’t want my connections – which are my business relationships – to be compromised or harvested by idiots who have no respect for the basic ethics of social connection. Save that for Face Book.