The Weirdest LinkedIn Strategy of All Time

If you do any kind of B2B (business-to-business) work, you probably are using LinkedIn. I recently started implementing a LinkedIn strategy as a way of expanding my local area connections, and sent connection requests to people I thought looked interesting and wanted to know. I began to receive responses from people, and many were really friendly…but some folks sent me responses that revealed to me The Weirdest LinkedIn Strategy of All Time.

What Is LinkedIn For?

LinkedIn is a social media platform where business professionals can connect with other business professionals. You can post what amounts to your full CV/resume on your LinkedIn profile, and then tell people what you’re interested in—job opportunities, advice requests, networking, consulting opportunities, whatever. It’s online dating for business professionals.

How is LinkedIn Misused

All too often, LinkedIn is used inappropriately. People spam LinkedIn groups (which can be super-useful when properly moderated), send spam emails to people they barely know, and try to sell like crazy. But you’d find that in pretty much any social media platform or in-person networking experience, so it’s not surprising. What is surprising is how people are connecting (or not connecting) via LinkedIn.

The Cue to The Weirdest LinkedIn Strategy of All Time

The first cue I got that there was a weird strategy at work was when I received a couple of emails from people saying the following:

Normally I do not approve connection requests from people I don’t know. However, I saw the article about you in the paper and enjoyed it very much, so I decided to approve your request.

Incidentally, this is the article they were referring to. I liked it as well.

The important part of this message is: “Normally, I do not approve connection requests from people I don’t know.”

And there it is right there, people, The Weirdest LinkedIn Strategy of All Time. Tadaaaaaaa!

The Weirdest LinkedIn Strategy of All Time

The weirdest LinkedIn Strategy of All Time, my friends, is to not connect with people you don’t know.

Look, I get it. There are a lot of weirdos out there. And you don’t just want to throw around your credentials willy nilly, connecting with strangers, right? Wrong.

Why this is a weird LinkedIn strategy:

LinkedIn is designed in such a way that you can connect with people you don’t know. In fact, that’s the entire point. Successful business is built on relationships. It’s not just built on the people you already know, but on the people you make an effort to meet. That’s why we have networking groups—to meet people you don’t know.

If you’re not accepting connection requests from people you don’t know, you’re missing the entire point, not just of LinkedIn, but of business in general.

Why this is a weird LinkedIn strategy for people with businesses or jobs:

When you own a business, especially a B2B business, you want to connect with buyers of your product or service who might be in your target market or who might know someone who falls into your target market. LinkedIn is a fantastic place to make those connections, because you never know what someone might be looking for now or in the future, and you don’t know who they knight know.

This part is obvious. But when it comes to people with jobs, I think there’s often the notion that if your paycheck comes every other week, you don’t need to worry about networking anymore. Au contraire, my friends. I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, but when the economy does funny things (or funny things happen in a particular industry) companies can and do fire perfectly good employees—even people who are performing well. So despite the fact that you feel safe, the truth is, you are never really completely safe from the whims of a corporation or the economy. Isn’t it better to have as many connections as possible, so that if and when your job becomes tenuous (er, or nonexistent), you can easily reach out to recruiters and connections to let them know you’re looking?

The Alternative

I’m not saying you should approve connection requests from anyone and everyone on LinkedIn. There’ll be folks on LinkedIn who don’t know how to use social media and don’t know how to market themselves properly. Those people will spam you and annoy you—just so you know, you can disconnect from people on Linkedin and you can (and should) report them for spam.

But instead of just turning people away because “I don’t know them,” look at who they are and what they do. And don’t be afraid to have a conversation with them.

I had a conversation a couple of weeks ago with someone who said, “I don’t usually accept requests on LinkedIn from people I don’t know. Can you refresh my memory on where we might have met?” And while I find this response a little awkward, I had no problem just saying, “We’ve never met, but you popped up in a search and I thought you seemed like you might be an interesting person to know.” That exchange led to a phone call and that led to a meeting with some very interesting opportunities for both of us.

My point, friends, is that you never know. So open your mind to the possibilities and think about whether LinkedIn might be a convenient and efficient way to reach out and connect with others in your industry and outside your industry, whether you’re a business owner or an employee.

What do you think? What’s your LinkedIn strategy? And do you connect with people you don’t know? Most importantly, would you connect with Bear Face over there?