What's the value of your network?

I can't help but shake my head at those who boast of having tens of thousands of connections on LinkedIn.

It's not because I don't understand the value of a large network, it's because I value quality over quantity.

When someone asks me about someone in my network, I like to be able to give a thoughtful response. ("Sure, I know Chris. We worked together a few years back... she's really bright and you won't find someone who works harder!") This isn't always feasible, of course: sometimes you hit it off with someone at a conference and immediately connect on LinkedIn... then several years pass and you've forgotten the person even as the connection remains. But when you hit "Accept" every time you get a random request, a personal connection with even a majority of your network becomes impossible.

Over the past year, I've written a few posts and articles that have been widely read and circulated, which has led to a humbling influx of LinkedIn connection requests from people around the world whom I've never had the opportunity to meet.

In fact, it's likely I would have over 20,000 connections today if I were to accept every request I've gotten in the past year. (I know, that figure seems high. But for context, my last "big" post achieved 4.7 million views.) And from a social media perspective, that would be fantastic: whenever I published an article like this one, it would immediately have a vast reach and a greater chance of "going viral". At that level, most PR experts would consider me a "micro-influencer" and might even begin to engage me for their client's campaigns!

But I don't think that's how I want to use LinkedIn. Not the way it's built today.

To be clear, I would love it if LinkedIn would allow me to sort my connections into a few groups: "Friends", "Former colleagues", "Recruiters", "Vendors", "People I met once at a conference", "People I've never met", and so on. This would be useful to me.

Better yet, if when accepting a request LinkedIn gave you the option to rate the strength of the connection -- i.e. a "1" for your best friend, a "5" for someone you've never met" -- and published those results within the "Connections" section, that would be useful to everyone on LinkedIn! There wouldn't be any more, "Oh, sorry, I don't know how I know Sam" or, "I met Joe at a conference once years ago, so I don't know him well enough to introduce you".. You'd be able to see that Sam and Joe were "5" connections for me, and wouldn't bother asking me about them.

But LinkedIn isn't built like that. You can "accept" or "ignore", and that's it. So we each need to make decisions about what our LinkedIn network is going to represent.

I choose to take a more personal approach to my network. Whenever I get a request, I handle it in one of four ways:

1. If it's from someone I know, I immediately click, "Accept", then generally follow-up with a brief note to thank them for reaching out. The follow-up note is important; it tells the person you value their connection and appreciate the fact they wanted to connect with you.
2. If it's from someone with "recruiter" in their title, I also hit accept. Yes, I want to have personal relationships with everyone in my network. But I also want to be considered for fantastic employment opportunities, so I feel this is a reasonable exception to my "keep it personal" rule on a professional social network. (And if somebody asks me how I know Brad the recruiter, it's pretty easy to explain.)
3. If it's from someone I've never met but who has taken the time to write a personalized note (or shares dozens of personal connections with me), I write them back. I thank them for reaching out, and explain that in order to keep my LinkedIn network more personal, I only connect to those with whom I've had a significant personal interaction. If their note mentions that they reached out because they liked something that I wrote, I invite them to "follow me" on LinkedIn. If I see they live in the greater Toronto area, I invite them for coffee so we can connect in person. (Often, they accept, and I've made a number of incredible new personal connections in this way.) Occasionally, I'll get requests from people who I think I might like to know, but don't. People who do really interesting work, or have really cool jobs at really amazing organizations, or people who I've noticed sharing incredible insights on LinkedIn. They all get coffee invitations as well. (I'm lucky I have a high tolerance for caffeine.) My point isn't that I'm not open to expanding my network... quite the opposite! It's just that I want to do it in a more personal way.
4. And if it's a simple, standardized, "I'd like to connect with you on LinkedIn request" from someone I've never met? That almost always gets an automatic decline without a further response. I think if they don't take the time to tell me why they want to connect with me, I don't owe anything more than that.

These are my own personal rules for LinkedIn, and they work for me. I'm not suggesting you adopt these rules, but until LinkedIn gives us some greater flexibility in classifying our connections, I do recommend taking a moment to think about how you choose to use the platform, and what the true value of your LinkedIn network is today.

But in any case, please stop bragging about the size of your network.

** If you enjoyed this article, please like or share it. (And comments are welcome.) If you really liked it, follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter (@pullara) so you'll know when my next piece is ready. But don't send me a connection request, okay? **