Which LinkedIn Invitations should I accept?

There are three basic connection strategies on LinkedIn. Connect with everyone, connect with people you have met, or connect broadly but selectively.

I don’t recommend the first two. The “everyone” strategy will mean your home feed – a great source of opportunity - becomes clogged with posts that are not relevant to you. Plus, it will have a negative impact on whether you appear in other people’s feeds or search results because the algorithm will be confused about who you are interested in and who might be interested in you.  

The second strategy, accepting invitations only from people who you have met either physically or perhaps on a conference call may seem like a sensible way to build a high-quality network and for a few people it will work. For the average LinkedIn user however, this approach is too time consuming and will result in a network with a very limited reach.

The fact is that the bigger your network the more opportunities you will find, and the more opportunities will find you. If you double the size of your network, as long as your connections are broadly relevant, you will double your visibility. 

Remember also in any networking situation it’s not just the people “in the room” who are important but also the people they are connected to who are not in the room. 

This is why I recommend the third strategy, to connect broadly but selectively. 

For example, people, who would be relevant to connect might include:

• People who fit your ideal client description

• People who are close to or connected to these individuals e.g. colleagues

• Non-competitors who provide services to them

• People with relevant networks that include your audience

• People with whom you have many shared connections

• Thought leaders in your market

I find it useful to have in mind or even write down specific criteria for whom you are willing to connect with, this will include sector, job title, location, number of shared connections etc. This doesn’t need to be fixed in stone. I often connect with people outside of my normal criteria if they send me a thoughtful personal message. I accept about 40% of the invitations I receive.

Finally, most LinkedIn members grow their network by accepting incoming invitations. That’s fine, but if that’s all you do then you are basically letting strangers shape your network – your most important business asset. It is therefore very important to balance this out by regularly issuing invitations to those individuals who you really want to have in your network.   

And that’s the subject of another article.  

What strategies have worked for you? Please share your experience and suggestions in the comments below.

Greg Cooper

LinkedIn Coach and Trainer

www.frontofmindcoaching.co.uk

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