Some comments from – Never Ask “Add Me To Your Network” in a LinkedIn Group Discussion-

These are some posts form the article -Never say “add me to yoru network” in a LinkedIn group discussion.

You can read the whole article here http://linkedinformarketing.com/never-ask-add-me-to-your-network-in-a-linkedin-group-discussion/

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It’s amazing that I came across this post. Being new to Linked In, I too wanted to begin making professional and reputable contacts, but my sixth sense was telling me that sending out invites to the unknown masses was not the best way to go. I am in the beggining stages of researching and preparing to begin my consulting career and this has just confirmed that I am going to continue to work hard at gaining reliable contacts!

Mia Goodwin
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Mia,

LinkedIn is a great way to find consulting clients as you can establish yourself as an expert in your industry.

Jorge Olson
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Thanks for the bit of advice Jorge. I actually handpick the people I linked to and never understood why people just want to add names to their list.

Terri David
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Terri,

You are welcome. Yes, you can choose linkedIn to be a private networking experience or an open one. It is all up to you. I have an open experience with close to 7,000 members as I’m an author and marketing consultant. I need as many people to see my message as I can.

I think the trick is what to do with your connections. Many people just add and add with no plan. With a plan you will get a lot from your connections and you will bring a lot to them. For example, you are a Natural Health Consultant and could have a “natural health group” on linkedin with 500, or even 5,000 members reading your posts, newsletters, views, and networking around your thoughts on Natural Health.

It is what I call “unselfish promotion”. You can read more in the book “The Unselfish Guide to Self Promotion”. You can find it at Amazon.com.

Jorge Olson
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Hi Jorge,

I wish you can have ability to post this to just about any group on linked-in out there. Actually – LinkedIn can suggest some code-of-conduct, which will be truly beneficial for all, and perhaps help reduce spam and great great noise that is brought in by “shallow engagement strategies” people use most often on LinkedIn. I hope this is still learning period for everyone, and in time people will learn to use LinkedIn potentials in the right way.

Great post, now you have to place it everywhere! : )

Best regards

Dragon Stiglic
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Great post Jorge, since I am also new and am still feeling my way around.
How do I go about starting a group?

Michael Fleyzor, MBA
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Excellent comment. It is new path for networking. It is important to share with the network our thoughts. Adding people to our network has become or turn to be important activity for the network.
Thank you for your proposal. I apologize adding you to mu network and than reading your comment.

Neshad Asllani
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Thank you for saying that. I have been curious about Linked In Open Networkers, why they do it and how they handle so many people.

I am amazed by how often people write me and I write back and ask them to refresh my memory about how we met- and they say something like “Oh, we haven’t met…I just sent a request out to everyone in my e-mail account.”

Dale Brown
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Dale,

Oh yes, I know exactly what you mean. This is why it’s important to have some automation in the network. I use software to help me collect, manage and keep in touch with people. It is usually very inexpensive to buy and set up. LinkedIn is also a great tool to complement your efforts, but not substitute them. I have an extensive list in linkedin of 10,000 people and another list of another 10,000 people in my own, separate database with newsletters attached to them.

Jorge Olson
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Content is king. Asking to “add me to your network” in a group discussion is like interrupting the conversation without saying “excuse me”, and then contributing zilch to the conversation.

Tina Dodelin Merritt
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I agree with you, Jorge, and I would add one more guideline: Please, know the person you are inviting. It isn’t complimentary to invite someone when that person knows you simply scanned down a list and invited everyone on it. That’s quite a turn-off.

Jean McFarland, Ph.D
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Good one Jorge. Until you have a relationship, you’re still a marketer

Glenn Raines
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Agree, totally, with Chris, Jim, and Richard. Since joining LinkedIn, I’ve always tried for quality contacts over quantity. I’ve politely declined invitations from potential connections with ‘over 500 connections’ because I don’t want my e-mail box filled with non-value-added information about the next bunch of connections they’ve made. I don’t have time to filter through them. Great post Jorge.

Andy Malcolm
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Yes, great discussion. The key to developing a powerful network is having something to share and learning from someone who is will to share. I focus on always remaining a student and be involved.

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”

Henry Ford

Anthony Kaniuk
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Great discussion!
I think LinkedIn would be greatly enhanced if they added two additional sections (in addition to the Discussions section) in the Groups area:

1) A job posting section. This would be used to post positions available or people seeking positions to make their availability known.
2) Open network requests. This would allow those who only want to make network requests to do so without cluttering up the discussions area.

If these areas were made available, then the Discussions area could be reserved for what it was intended: information sharing.

Monica Lundquist
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Thank you for taking the time to write what I’ve been thinking since I started subscribing to group digests! I’ve actually opted out of several groups because they were so saturated with these kind of posts. Would you say one of the other no-no’s include subject lines seeping with gimmickry: “WOW – YOU TOO CAN BE A MILLIONAIRE IN ONLY 40 DAYS!!!!” If you are using all caps, and/or multiple exclamation points, time to reevaluate the effectiveness of your post.

When I read those, I think that person wants something from me… and the natural tendency is to run from blatant marketing. We get hit up enough. It’s not even marketing – it’s more like a telemarketer that is just calling for the sake of being obnoxious, and doesn’t even have something to sell.

Thanks again – great post Jorge.

Cheryl Hendrick
www.brandnavigation.com
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Great comment Cheryl,

Yes, all caps MILLIONAIRE posts look more like spam email. I hope group administrators take the time to remove those quickly and worn the person posting. This would stop these actions quickly as they’ll figure out it’s a waste of their time.

This is why we need our group administrators to be active in posting, managing and answering posts. If they don’t have time they can always invite several participants to be administrators and help a little bit at a time.

By the way Cheryl, good job at signing the post with your name and website. More than 200 people have left comments for this post and less than 10 remember to sign them and place their website.
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The value of linked in is connected to the general value of networking. What may not be beneficial for you may be beneficial for someone you know. You helping them out gives you greater value in the eyes of both parties.

Hope Bryant
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I’m in agreement as well. This isn’t supposed to be the suit-and-tie version of MySpace. If I don’t accept an invitation to become a contact – well, no offense meant, but I only connect with people who I actually know or have worked with. If that means that my connections will never hit triple-digits, so be it. But in my mind, it’s not the quantity of connections we have here, it’s the quality of them. If I happen to strike a working relationship with someone as a result of LinkedIn, then I have no problems adding them to my list. (And, with the groups I’m in, there is a lot of cross-pollination where I’m seeing the same postings in two or more groups. I’m speaking only for me here, but if I post something, I try to select the group where I’ll get the best response.)

We’re all here to get our names out there, our work recognized and to possibly find that dream career. If it doesn’t happen that way for me, then at least I know I’ve re-connected with a few people from my past, and I can be proud of the work I’ve done outside of LinkedIn.

Christopher Thelen
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Christopher,

What a great comment. I’m glad you don’t agree 100% with me, that way we can both learn and advance the discussion.

Jorge Olson
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G00d point for discussion. When forum is for DISCUSSION it should have proper discussion only. But, I feel, one of the reason might be, on the network site the person’s name is appeared in bold with number of connections in bracket like 346, 500+ etc. As the time passes it need to be evolved i.e.the ways of networking in the forum, otherwise there is no point on having a network forum of 30 million high end executives. The important thing about person’s network is how well connected members are in the network, not only the how many members are in the network. For example, on e-bay the seller is represented with not only number of deals or sales but also with %age and analysis of its positive/negative responses.
Moreover, the forum is utilised by members in different ways like some members are using it to develop the database depending on their requirements and some are using for to know what happening in their particular field of interest etc. But, I am agree with that it need to be changed or improved or evolved. Any comments?

Mehul Pancholi
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Once in a while, I will request a ‘join my network’ based on someone’s discussion points (usually after I’ve seen them post several salient remarks). My motivation is that I may want to do business with them down the line so I’d like to have them in my ‘electronic’ memory.

Karen Opas-Lanouette
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my favorite I have ever received was one saying, “please don’t click that you don’t know me, just ignore if you don’t want to connect.”

But I DON’T know you…. and I have no idea WHY you want to connect to me, other than adding another number….and you are going to bother to add to a stock message why not add something important?

Kristen Harmon
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I concur as well. I made a mistake by adding a couple of random connections, who promptly spammed me with useless BS. I uninvited them immediately. Personally, I’m still undecided on the value of LinkedIn beyond staying in touch with collegues.

Michael Croy
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I agree with you Jorge. Glad you said it. I am still wondering why people want to have as many connections as possible. They would seem random and meaningless.

However, with all due respect, I think you give LinkedIn a little too much credit. I don’t believe that LI’s full database is active (I know they’re not). Also, At some point there will be diminishing returns. We can’t read tens of thousands of posts and emails, and that is or will be what we will receive now or in the near future. And I am not sure discussion are “the most important strategies on the net” I think there are better ways to network, like identifying synergy,

I agree with clever discussions, however, in my opininon, I believe people ought to say what they do, so you can determiine what synergy you have and what trails you can blaze together.

Here is to Great results!

Steven Gerald
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Great point. I must say, whenever I see anyone with that request I immediately discount them.

When I’m trying to connect with people I don’t know on LI, I want to know the person (people) in between us that I’m asking to make the connection. If it’s a bunch of people I blindly connected with, what’s the point and the value? While I’ve got a lot of connections, I know the vast majority. There are some “functional” adds like recruiters who are valuable. Then a few others but I try and keep them to a minimum.

Chris Taylor
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Excellent suggestion. Linkedin group has so much reach, that one should focus on building relevant contacts throughs discussions.

Krishnamurthy Hegde
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You will not believe, i got shouted in one of the forums at linkedin for raising this issue. networking for the sake of networking just doesnt make sense is what i tried to explain and the next thing is a barrage of mails and messages asking me to keep my trap shut. I am glad, there are others who feel like me.

Pavan Panchamukhi
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Hi Jorge,

I concur! When I received emails from the groups, I would like to read about informative knowledge share information and not a time waster on who wants an invite to expand their network. A solution to this issue is for the groups to add another tab for this purpose (i.e. Discussions, Members). Then, the members whose focus is to expand their network can do so in a professional manner.

Thank you for the thoughtful Insight,

Tina Lewis-Clem
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Jorge: Great advice as usual. I am quite puzzled by many groups that I belong to. Very few people actually participate in discussions. I belong to some groups that have more than 40,000 people but yet the majority of decent posts (not junk like “add me now”) are lucky to get even one response. This to me is sad as the talent level in the profiles of most groups is awesome. I would encourage all members to add wisdom and different opinions even if contrary whenever possible.

It is also not clear to me why many people actually want the connections. I have more than 5000 connections but I can count on both hands the number of people that have used my network to “add value: and/or to build a strong relationship. You are one of them.

I would add to your post that there is always a great opportunity to write a custom invite rather than using the generic invitation. Not a sales pitch such as buy my widget but a geniune descriptoin of your talents, how you might be able to help me (What is in it for me?) and how I may be able to help you (What is in it for you?). I would estimate that 99 percent of invites that I receive are just generic.

Last but not least I have a question of interest for your expertise about invites. If you run out of invites, can one request more and what are the current limits?

I am willingly to help anyone where I can with my network. Tell me specifically what you need and I open the door(s) if I can. Even if I can’t help at the moment I keep a list of requests in case I see something of interest in the future.

Have a terrific day.

Randy Ross
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