Submitted by eastbayrider on
in
Forums
When creating your network, the advice given on the Manager Tools podcast is that everyone is welcome. Do not discriminate between the janitor and the VP. So when using a networking tool like LinkedIn.com, what is the proper protocol to invite someone to join your network?
Is it proper to blindly invite them from the LinkedIn site or is it better to email or call first and ask if they would consider joining your network.
Since the attitude behind forming a complete network is NOT "What can these people do for me?", I wonder, is there ever a time when you would choose not to join someone's network?
I look forward to hearing the opinions of the membership.
The criteria I normally
The criteria I normally apply can be summed up as:
I don't blindly invite people to my network if I've never communicated them but so long as I have had some sort of interaction I'll probably invite them. An interaction might be meeting them, talking on the phone, exchanging emails or one of us answered the other's question on the LinkedIn QA forum or commented on the other's post in a group forum. I'd say that my LinkedIn network is about a third people I've actually met face to face many times, one third people I've only met once and one third people I've never met but have interacted with on an online forum. A number of people in the first two groups started in the third and I met up with them because we'd already 'met' through LinkedIn.
The second criterion deliberately has a double negative in it. I'm not asking if they are someone I want in my network, that would be head hunting. There are some people who based on past experience of them I know I don't want in my network. Typically these are the people that Mark and Mike refer to in the building your network cast as having a psychic stink caused by the fact that they're out for what they can get only. I don't mind help, giving as it's referred to in the cast, I don't 'Keep Score'. Indeed I often get people referred to me at work for help because I've built up a reputation as someone who will help if I possibly can (yesterday someone asked me for help and said that they had bene told "Ask Stephen, he doesn't say 'No'."). On the other hand, I also like to feel that if I ever need help I won't be rebuffed.
There are some people I would love to have in my network and with whom I have had many interactions. Unfortunately I believe that if I approached them they would turn me down because they operate a much stricter set of criteria. For example, I know people who will only invite very close friends and work colleagues, personally I think that's being overly restrictive but it's their choice. On LinkedIn, if more than a certain, quite small, number of invitees click the 'I don't Know' button (i.e. reject the invite) your account pretty much gets blocked from inviting people. I don't want to risk my account being blocked because I didn't meet the criteria for being in a few people's networks.
Stephen
Everyone has their own guidelines
Very well articulated Stephen
I am pretty open on my LinkedIn, fairly open on Plaxo, not open at all on Facebook. Only my close friends and relatives are on Facebook.
On LinkedIn, I don't invite anyone I don't know or have a reference to. If I think the person might not remember me, I give them a reminder of where we met or emailed or whatever. I think twice I miscatalogued someone and got the wrong person on LinkedIn and one of them said, I am not your old school mate but what the heck, nice to meet you.
I do select out people. I don't accept random invites. And if someone I know has a bit of a history, I may choose to not make them part of my formal network.
I also don't worry about getting rejected on LinkedIn. I got the linked in warning once and emailed them to take it off. When they responded and said the person claims he doesn't know you, I said to them "Just because someone is not as good at remembering introductions as I am is no reason to penalize me as a LinkedIn user." I have not had a warning since.
*RNTT