My LinkedIn Connection policy (a.k.a. Why I haven’t accept your connection request)
I feel it’s that time of the year again. No, not spring, the LinkedIn Connection policy time. By that I mean to tell people who I accept and who I don’t accept connections on LinkedIn. I fear some people might be offended if I don’t explain why I never accepted their connection request on LinkedIn.
First and foremost, I try to keep my LinkedIn network highly curated. I’m not interested in connected with the largest number of people. I’m interested in keeping a strong business network with strong connections.
To that end, my rule of thumb of connecting with other folks on LinkedIn is pretty simple: Do I know enough about you so if Jane Doe (a connection of mine) asks me about you I would be able to give her information about you? And this is a reciprocal test: Do you know enough about me so if Joe Doe (a connection of yours) asks you about me you would be able to give him information about me?
If the answers to those two questions aren’t ‘yes’, it’s a no go for a connection.
I’ll also accept “weak” connections, as long as we have spent at least some reasonable amount of time talking to each other so you and I can have a beat on each other.
I don’t accept connections from people I have not met. I don’t accept connections from recruiters (if I have not worked with them) even if they say they have the job of a lifetime for me. I don’t accept connections of people who want to pitch me business ideas or event invest on my startup. It doesn’t matter. My email is publicly available (marcelo -at- this domain) so if you need to “connect” with me use email or Twitter (@calbucci).
I feel like LinkedIn is making it easier for people to add people they don’t know, probably because they see how Facebook keeps pushing people to increase their number of friends, but I find that is taking away from the real value of that network.
