My LinkedIn Philosophy<\/strong><\/p>\nFirst and foremost I\u2019ve always thought of LinkedIn as a platform to help me maintain my professional relationships. I\u2019ve relaxed my threshold a bit over time. Initially I only connected with people that I had a real live relationship with. Meaning, at the very least we’d had a substantive conversation together at some point. I\u2019ve always tried to maintain the idea that if anyone in my network wanted or needed an introduction to anyone else in my network that I would be in a position to do it because the relationships are real.<\/p>\n
As my podcast audience began to grow and more and more people reached out to connect with me, I figured I\u2019d still be in a position to make those introductions if someone was deeply familiar with me and my work. So for the last couple of years I have accepted invitation requests from people that I don\u2019t actually know IF they sent a personalized invitation request and mentioned the podcast or my other work. In which case I would accept and always send a personal reply.<\/p>\n
I still don\u2019t accept invitation requests from people I don\u2019t know who either send an invite without a note (which is the vast majority), or who send a super generic note. Here are a couple of recent ones that I\u2019ve ignored: \u201cHi Scott, We have some mutual contacts here on LinkedIn and I\u2019d like to connect with you.\u201d \u201cHi Scott, I\u2019m looking to expand my professional network and would love to have you as part of my growing network.\u201d Anything with a generic pitch out of the gate gets summarily ignored as well.<\/p>\n
Generally speaking, if somebody can\u2019t take the time to actually look at my profile page and spend 10 seconds writing a truly personal note, then I can\u2019t take the time to press the accept button. Perhaps I\u2019m a bit of a snob in that way, but randomly clicking a \u201cconnect\u201d button, and the 1\/2 second of effort that requires, doesn\u2019t quite match up with the level of effort that I believe real relationships require.<\/p>\n
The Value of Relationships<\/strong><\/p>\nThe way I prefer to use LinkedIn helps me stay up to date with what\u2019s going on in my network. Since I\u2019m not active on Facebook, this is my primary feed for getting updates about how people are progressing through their careers. I get to see when they change companies and get promoted. Through their shares I can see what they\u2019re interested in and what they find valuable and interesting. Some even share some really valuable original content that tends to be quite a bit more thoughtful than what I see other places. Perhaps because LinkedIn has always been a bit more \u201cprofessional.\u201d<\/p>\n
If I were to accept every connection request that came my way, I believe the value of this feed would be greatly diminished. The updates and shares would just be random from people that I didn\u2019t know. Sure I might get to know some of these people over time if they consistently shared particularly valuable stuff, but I essentially get that benefit anyway as my network will frequently like and share those that act in that way anyway.<\/p>\n
As I was thinking through this piece this morning I actually started to question whether I really had \u201crelationships\u201d with 2,988 connections (the difference between that number and what you see on my profile is about 500 followers, we\u2019ll talk more about that in a bit). That didn\u2019t seem right even when accounting for the loosening of my standards for my podcast and book fans. Then I realized that in the 14 years I\u2019ve been on LinkedIn I\u2019ve worked for 6 different companies, run two of my own (one of which was a business networking organization here in Austin that pretty massively contributed to the size of my own network) and been in sales the whole time which means I\u2019m pretty constantly connecting with new people.<\/p>\n
Being able to keep up with all of those people over all these years is really cool. While it\u2019s still a pretty light way of keeping up and a bit more passive than it is active, I still value it and don\u2019t think it would feel the same if that number were 10,000 or 15,000 and composed predominantly of strangers.<\/p>\n
Most importantly I value being in a position to serve my network. For those of us in sales referrals and introductions are gold, and I like being able to do that for my friends when I can. The way I use LinkedIn today, 9 times out of 10 I\u2019m able to connect my friends with the individuals that they see that I\u2019m connected with, because I actually know them.<\/p>\n
The Value of Reach<\/strong><\/p>\nThere\u2019s value in having more people know about you and your work. In my case I started really focusing on creating quality content a couple of years ago when I launched the Sales Success Stories Podcast where I only interview top performing individual contributors to try to understand exactly what they\u2019ve done to get to the top.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t create that content just for my network, but for the benefit of the entire professional sales community. So it would make sense to connect with as many people as possible, especially those in sales, to reach more people with what I hope is career changing and potentially life changing content.<\/p>\n
This would mean not only accepting the more generic connection requests, but also proactively reaching out and connecting with people as well. Though at some point there appear to be limits to this approach with LinkedIn\u2019s 30,000 1st degree connection limit.<\/p>\n
Over the years I\u2019ve heard many people talk about the value of having a very large following and have shared examples of how they\u2019ve been able to create opportunities through this type of an approach. Heck, some have even suggested to me that I\u2019m missing out due to my approach.<\/p>\n
At the end of the day it\u2019s a very personal decision. There\u2019s nothing right or wrong about either approach, but through the process of writing this I think I\u2019ve gotten some additional clarity. You can probably tell that I\u2019m a bit biased, because I struggle to articulate some of the additional value of the reach based approach probably because it\u2019s not my style. Perhaps someone will take the time to write the counter to this post and share some more ideas on why that approach can be so valuable. In the old days of LinkedIn we used to call those folks LIONS (LinkedIn Open Networkers), though I haven\u2019t heard that term in years.<\/p>\n
I do believe that there are some things that LinkedIn could easily change that would potentially give us the best of both worlds:<\/p>\n
Suggestions for LinkedIn (My Wish List)<\/strong><\/p>\nPerhaps LinkedIn and the product team will consider some of these ideas:<\/p>\n
\n- Make the default option \u201cfollow\u201d everywhere there\u2019s a \u201cconnect\u201d button today. Connecting should be a more intentional act, and it\u2019s OK if it takes an extra click. Or perhaps the connect option should only available on someone\u2019s profile page.<\/li>\n
- Either require, or always make it easy for someone to include a personal message with their connection request. Encourage users to always personalize. Perhaps by blocking the ability to paste content into that field.<\/li>\n
- Rather than just offering the \u201cAccept” and \u201cIgnore” options for new connection requests, change \u201cIgnore” to \u201cMake Follower\u201d (or a better term that means the same thing, but sounds better than \u201cmake follower\u201d)<\/li>\n
- Allow for tags to be applied to contacts (whether connected or following) and allow for feeds to be created based on those tags. For example I\u2019d love to see updates just from my clients, just from my prospects, just from my close friends, etc. and easily be able to toggle back and forth between these different groups that I\u2019ve identified.<\/li>\n
- Overhaul Sales Navigator. It should be a layer of additional functionality that becomes available to enhance the everyday LinkedIn that we all use, and not a completely separate and disconnected area with a separate inbox.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I would love to hear your thoughts on this. What\u2019s your philosophy or approach when it comes to LinkedIn? Can you better articulate the value of a more reach centric open networking approach than I have? What would you love to see LinkedIn change to improve the experience for all of us?<\/p>\n
Again to share your comments, please do so on LinkedIn and you can get to this article at DailySales.Tips\/RR<\/a><\/p>\nThanks for listening, Thanks for your thoughts and be sure you\u2019re subscribed and come back tomorrow for another great sales tip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI love LinkedIn. It\u2019s my favorite social network by far.\u201d \u2013 Scott Ingram in today\u2019s Tip 85 What\u2019s your philosophy or approach when it comes to LinkedIn? \u00a0Can you better articulate the value of a more reach centric open networking approach than I have? \u00a0What would you love to see LinkedIn change to improve the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"content-sidebar","footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-daily-sales-tips","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n
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It\u2019s my favorite social network by far.\u201d \u2013 Scott Ingram in today\u2019s Tip 85 What\u2019s your philosophy or approach when it comes to LinkedIn? \u00a0Can you better articulate the value of a more reach centric open networking approach than I have? \u00a0What would you love to see LinkedIn change to improve the...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-85-reach-vs-relationships-on-linkedin-scott-ingram\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Daily Sales Tips\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-14T09:30:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-04-14T23:36:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/10\/Web-sqScott_Ingram-0030-Edit.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scott Ingram\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ScottIngram\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@DailySales_Tips\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scott Ingram\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-85-reach-vs-relationships-on-linkedin-scott-ingram\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-85-reach-vs-relationships-on-linkedin-scott-ingram\/\",\"name\":\"Sales Tip 85: Reach vs. Relationships on LinkedIn - 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<\/p>\n