Scott Kinnear
New Member
I wonder what peoples thoughts are on accepting connection requests, particularly If you are on LinkedIn?
I have been to quite a few networking events, I got fed-up of them, and stopped going. It feels like a cattle market to me. I enjoy making connections, but I have no time for false people, peoples behaviour comes over like 'Hi I'm your new friend, lets swap business cards and keep in touch'', and then when the event is over, you never hear from them again, even after sending an ice breaker email to the person, they have become too busy to answer.
LinkedIn - I love it as a platform - A platform to get insights on different business/career stories etc, and, possibly connecting with other professionals, who might see skills that can help them and in turn help you.
Before Christmas 2017, I had 30 connections, after Christmas I took it down to 7...! Why... Because 23 of them were full of their own self importance. I cant be bothered with this. it turns into cliques.
Imagine being at a networking event, and someone comes over and puts one of their business cards in your hand, says Hi, then moves on across the room and does the same with others. No introduction, no rapport, why would you want to call them? The same happens on LinkedIn, people send an invitation to connect, there is no message with it saying why they wish to connect, just an invite.
In my own experience - and it depends on what their role is, and if we might be able to help one another in some way, I will usually accept, they sent me an invitation, so perhaps once I accept they will send me a message to introduce themselves. Well I have had a couple of invitations to connect recently, one I refused, one I accepted.... and then disconnected from again, because i gave them a couple of days to send an introduction, nothing! To me, it is like the person at the networking event putting their card in your hand then vanishing into space. whats the point in inviting someone to connect then not connecting?
Whats more, it makes it harder for the next person to get their invitation accepted. Some people who I think are genuine, will send an introduction with their invite, some people send the invite and wait and until you accept then introduce themselves, others are just trying to build numbers of connections without building on the connection.
Currently I have 6 'Quality' connections who do check in from time to time, perhaps 1 or 2 check in on the other platforms Twitter/Facebook/Instagram.
I would love to see other thoughts on making connections through social media.
I have been to quite a few networking events, I got fed-up of them, and stopped going. It feels like a cattle market to me. I enjoy making connections, but I have no time for false people, peoples behaviour comes over like 'Hi I'm your new friend, lets swap business cards and keep in touch'', and then when the event is over, you never hear from them again, even after sending an ice breaker email to the person, they have become too busy to answer.
LinkedIn - I love it as a platform - A platform to get insights on different business/career stories etc, and, possibly connecting with other professionals, who might see skills that can help them and in turn help you.
Before Christmas 2017, I had 30 connections, after Christmas I took it down to 7...! Why... Because 23 of them were full of their own self importance. I cant be bothered with this. it turns into cliques.
Imagine being at a networking event, and someone comes over and puts one of their business cards in your hand, says Hi, then moves on across the room and does the same with others. No introduction, no rapport, why would you want to call them? The same happens on LinkedIn, people send an invitation to connect, there is no message with it saying why they wish to connect, just an invite.
In my own experience - and it depends on what their role is, and if we might be able to help one another in some way, I will usually accept, they sent me an invitation, so perhaps once I accept they will send me a message to introduce themselves. Well I have had a couple of invitations to connect recently, one I refused, one I accepted.... and then disconnected from again, because i gave them a couple of days to send an introduction, nothing! To me, it is like the person at the networking event putting their card in your hand then vanishing into space. whats the point in inviting someone to connect then not connecting?
Whats more, it makes it harder for the next person to get their invitation accepted. Some people who I think are genuine, will send an introduction with their invite, some people send the invite and wait and until you accept then introduce themselves, others are just trying to build numbers of connections without building on the connection.
Currently I have 6 'Quality' connections who do check in from time to time, perhaps 1 or 2 check in on the other platforms Twitter/Facebook/Instagram.
I would love to see other thoughts on making connections through social media.
