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Don’t attempt to read this tip if you are half asleep, driving your car, watching TV, and/or doing a bit of nighttime homework at the same time — or other similar multitasking situations. This one will take your full attention. But I am quite sure it will be worth it.
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The Great LinkedIn Debate — Quality vs. Quantity
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For those of you who have seen me teach and/or have been following my LinkedIn Tips & Helps for a while, you know that I am a firm believer in your network being people you trust, at least in the early stages of your LinkedIn journey. Webster defines trust as “one in which confidence is placed” or “reliance on character, ability, strength or truth.” My personal definition has always been someone you know, love, care about, and would help if he/she called you.
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You have to come up with your own definition of trust each and every day and not just for LinkedIn purposes. LinkedIn was designed for you to connect with people you trust. I know this because if you go to your Network Statistics (go to the top toolbar under Contacts, then select Network Statistics), you will see in big green letters “Your Network of Trusted Professionals.”
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All this being said, LinkedIn can be one heck of a tool to meet people you don’t know but would like to know, but this is where some of the problems begin. As I was thinking about how to address this quality versus quantity debate, I came up with a visualization tool that outlines some of the issues and questions, and I am calling it the LinkedIn Connections Continuum. It is definitely a work in process, but I think you will get the feel for it if you just step back and think about it for a while.
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What I would like to do next is share with you what my strategy/approach has been during my time on LinkedIn as it relates to the great quality versus quantity debate.
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For my first 18 months or so on LinkedIn, I was simply the owner of an office furniture dealership doing business mostly in southeastern Wisconsin, but I did quite a bit of LinkedIn training on the side for the purpose of developing that office furniture business. I knew all 400 or so first-level connections in my LinkedIn network, and I was sure that if I wanted to help anyone in that network get introduced to another of the 400 people, I could (and did) do just that.
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Then during all my training classes, I met some very nice people, not necessarily trusted but not “untrusted” either. I just didn’t know them well enough to fit my definition that I mentioned earlier.
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That being said, they wanted to connect with me because, after all, I was the guy who helped many of them “see the light” on the power of LinkedIn. I always joked around in my classes that if you want to connect with me in the appropriate way (tell me where we met and why we might like to be connected), I would accept that invitation. But if in a year or two I find that you are connected to someone who is moving, growing, remodeling or expanding their business and might need my office furniture expertise and help, I sure hope you will remember the bald guy who helped you with LinkedIn when I ask you to introduce me to your friend.
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As time continued to pass, my passion and interest in LinkedIn went past the best business development tool I have ever had for my office furniture business and into a business of its own. At that time I realized that people all over the world were interested in connecting with me. Most of them would state in their invitation that they were learning, growing, and getting lots of benefit out of my information or a friend of theirs recommended that they start following my advice and information because it could help them as well.
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It was then that I became more of an open networker but no where near the strategy of a LION, which stands for LinkedIn Open Networker. These people accept any and all requests. As a matter of fact, they usually have run out of invitations and are asking people to invite them.
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My thought is that I look forward to helping these people who are all over the world, and maybe someday they will invite me to their little corner of the world to speak/teach/train a group from their company or other organization. As a matter of fact, this just happened two weeks ago, where a person whom I met sent me a LinkedIn invitation saying some of these things and subsequently hired me to do a LinkedIn webinar for several of their offices on the East Coast.
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I share this because it shows that over time my strategy on LinkedIn as it relates to who I let into my network has changed, but it has changed strategically, and yours could do the same. The key is still who do you want to meet, and LinkedIn has all kinds of features that can help you do that — and I don’t mean just the Introduction feature, which is designed to get an introduction “friend to friend” but more open meeting features, like Groups, Answers, Status Updates, etc.
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Enough said.
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The action step for you now is to think about where you are currently on the LinkedIn Connections Continuum and whether that spot is getting you what you strategically want to get out of your efforts on LinkedIn. But keep in mind that moving out further to the right has its benefits but some issues you may have to manage through as well.
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Great blog post, Wayne and exactly describes the situation that I find myself in as well. I am not a LION and never want to be because I feelo that my LinkedIn network manages me and not the other way around. However, as a consequence of being highly visible in the Atlanta area as a LinkedIn guru from doing LinkedIn training and volunteering at a local church to help people with their profiles, I get a lot of Linkedin invitations. If I receive what I call the “lazy networker” invitation message (what LinkedIn provides) it will not be accepted so those who take the time to personalize and tell me why connecting with them is beneficial for the both of us get their invitations accepted every time!
Thanks for the useful info. I work with an NPO helping new entrepreneurs up in Toronto and I’ve bookmarked your article to a Delicious account I’ve created for them so thanks from all our clients too!
Have fun
Laurie
This is SUCH an important post, Wayne, and I wish it would get widespread readership. Your newsletter today about the etiquette of inviting someone to LinkedIn is important too. I get so many invitations from people who only use the default wording and don’t customize it. Here are a couple of related questions:
1) In my profile, I specified that to connect with me, I wanted people to tell me how they knew me or how I got on their radar screen. But I don’t think anyone sees that and I’ve never seen criteria set up by anyone to whom I sent an invitation. Why does LinkedIn bother to give you that option?
2) When you click on the “Connect” link on someone’s profile, you’re given the option of customizing the invitation. But when people are listed in the “People you might know” list and you click on Connect there, you don’t have the option of customizing your invitation, and then you have to scramble to try to send them a message. My question is this – when you use the feature of finding people in your email list who are on LinkedIn, do you get a chance to customize their invitation before the default invitation goes out to them?
Thanks.
I noticed on your profile you did include that specific information in your “Contact Elizabeth For” box. I’m not sure how many people will notice that since it’s way at the bottom of your profile. You do have the option to move that box higher in your profile. Moving that box right below your light blue top box would bring the most attention to your request. I have seen others do this, but I’m not sure if people then respect the request.
I think LinkedIn’s intention is good, but I don’t think people take the time to refer to this box prior to an invitation.
Some of the automated invitation features on LinkedIn, like “People You May Know,” “Alumni,” and “Imported Connections,” don’t allow personalized invitations. This is a bummer. I wish they did. I recommend to people that they try not to use these features, and if they want to connect with anyone who pops up using these features, they write down their name and invite them from their profile. Then you will be able to customize your invitation.
When you use the feature of finding people in your email list, you don’t get a chance to customize the invitation.
Gosh, I didn’t realize you had responded to my comment. Wayne. Thank you! I will definitely move up my criteria for connecting.
I realize now that I have too many first level connections and no idea about their integrity or work ethic. Does it makes sense to UN-connect with people or just to change my connection strategy going forward?
I would probably only unconnect with them if they become annoying to you and/or your connections.
Open Endorsers are Open Netwiorkers–only they have more skills.
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