

Ask HN: Do you connect with people you don't know on LinkedIn? - yawz

Hi,<p>I have this principle about social media in general: I don&#x27;t connect with people that I don&#x27;t know. On LinkedIn, this translate as rejecting people I don&#x27;t know or I&#x27;ve never done business with.<p>I started to think that my stand on this issue might be defeating the main purpose of using LinkedIn. What do you think? How do you manage your LinkedIn connections?
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chrisbennet
I only link with people I know. This
article[http://www.brelson.com/2011/05/how-recruiters-are-posing-
a-t...](http://www.brelson.com/2011/05/how-recruiters-are-posing-a-threat-to-
linkedin-even-though-they-dont-mean-to/) explains why you might want to be
choosy.

"The general principle is that, if you’re connected to more than a couple of
recruiters, searching LinkedIn will turn up more and more people who are
second degree contacts, but that you only know through recruiters. The value
of someone being a second degree contact slowly declines, because when a
recruiter is the common contact you learn nothing more meaningful than that
you both once looked for a job, or once tried to hire people."

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mindcrime
Yes, I accept LinkedIn connections from almost anybody. The few exceptions are
obvious spam profiles (profiles with clearly fake names, no picture, no
connections, etc.) But anybody who appears to be a real person, I'll probably
connect with.

Why? Because I take the attitude of "You never know how a connection may be
beneficial" and "everybody has something to contribute to everybody else". I
also try to practice "pay it forward" and will usually do things to assist
people (like making introductions or sending referrals on LinkedIn) without
any expectation of any sort of compensation or "quid pro quo" stuff. I figure
the "good karma" will loop back around eventually, one way or another.

~~~
yawz
Thanks. I think it's a good way of looking at things. I might just practice
the same from now on.

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JSeymourATL
Depends on how you want to use Linkedin-- smaller networks might make sense if
you rely on it as a default contacts manager. Good rule of thumb, if someone
actually takes the time to personalize an invite, you can more easily weigh
the merits of that new contact.

