Connecting with people on LinkedIn can be a great way to grow your professional network and make valuable connections. However, sending and accepting connection requests requires some strategy and discretion. When someone sends you a connection request on LinkedIn, you have three options – accept, ignore, or decline the request. How you respond depends on several factors. Here are some tips on accepting LinkedIn connection requests appropriately and effectively.
Should you connect with everyone?
Connecting with everyone who sends you a request on LinkedIn may seem like a quick way to grow your network. However, this can diminish the value of your connections. LinkedIn limits you to 30,000 connections, so be selective about who you choose to connect with. Focus on connecting with people you have actually worked with, went to school with, or have mutually beneficial business interests. Don’t accept connections from complete strangers or people you would not interact with professionally. Connecting with irrelevant people will not help you foster meaningful relationships.
Look at their profile and mutual connections
When you receive a connection request, look at the person’s profile and see if you have any mutual connections. This can give you insight into who the person is and why they may want to connect with you. If you have several shared connections, especially with people you trust, this indicates the person is likely relevant to connect with. If you have no mutual connections, proceed with caution as the person may be reaching out randomly.
Do you know them or have met them before?
If you recognize the name and remember meeting or working with the person, they are likely safe to connect with. You can send a note when accepting the request referencing where you met them. If you do not recognize the name at all, do some research to jog your memory or determine if you have any affiliation with the person before connecting.
What does their profile and experience reveal?
Review the person’s profile carefully, looking at their work experience, education, skills, recommendations, and interests. If they are in your industry or have very relevant experience to you, they may be worth connecting with. Be wary of sparse profiles without much information.
Warning signs on a LinkedIn profile:
- Profile photo looks like a stock image
- Experience section lacks detail
- Few or no connections
- No recommendations
These signs may indicate the profile is fake or the person does not use LinkedIn actively. Use your judgment on whether to connect in those cases.
Do you have any objectives for connecting?
Think about why you want to grow your network and what goals you have. Connecting with colleagues in your industry can create opportunities to share knowledge. Connecting with mentors can provide valuable advice for your career. Connecting with HR representatives and recruiters can help your job search. Evaluate connection requests in terms of what objectives the person can help you accomplish.
Personalize your response
When accepting a connection request, take a moment to personalize your response instead of just clicking accept. Mention how you may know them or what interests you about their experience. This starts the relationship off on a more engaging note. If you need to research the person before responding, wait to accept until you can reference something more specific in your response.
When to ignore or decline requests
While you should aim to be selective about who you connect with, there are some cases where ignoring or declining a request is preferable to accepting:
- The person is a complete stranger with no shared connections or relevance.
- The person seems suspicious or fake, such as having a sparse profile.
- The person is promoting products or services in their request message.
- You are already at your connection limit.
Use LinkedIn messaging to explain why you declined a request from someone you know. But feel free to silently decline for irrelevant strangers.
Avoid over-connecting
While connecting to new people regularly is good, avoid going overboard. Connecting with hundreds of new people a week will be difficult to manage. Be more strategic by focusing on connecting with a few high-value contacts at a time. Also reassess your network occasionally and remove contacts that are no longer relevant.
Manage your existing network
In addition to sending connection requests, also remember to engage your current connections by interacting with their posts, endorsing their skills, providing recommendations, and sending messages. Maintain the relationships you have already built. Connecting with new people will matter less if you are not getting value from your existing network.
Make use of filters and organizer folders
LinkedIn provides some tools to help organize your network which can make accepting requests easier:
- Turn on Relationship Filters to label how you are connected to each contact.
- Use tags to highlight common traits among your contacts such as industry, company, or school.
- Create organizer folders to categorize connections by parameters like location.
This organization can help you identify key connections more easily and see who you should continue interacting with.
Conclusion
Be thoughtful and selective when considering which LinkedIn connection requests to accept. Growing your network with irrelevant contacts will not provide much value. Focus on connecting with people you already know or who have mutual affiliations and objectives. Before accepting a request, research the person and think about how they can add value to your own experience. Use tools to organize your network, personalize connection responses, and maintain engagement. Applying these best practices to your LinkedIn connections will help you make the most of your professional network.
Connection Request Situation | Recommendation |
---|---|
You recognize the person and have worked with them before | Accept request and reference previous connection |
You have several mutual connections | Accept request and mention the mutual connections |
They are in your industry but you don’t know them | Research their profile before accepting |
No mutual connections or shared affiliations | Ignore or decline the request |
Their profile seems suspicious or promotional | Decline the request |
You have already reached connection limit | Ignore request |
Tips for managing LinkedIn connections
Be selective about sending requests
Only connect with people you know or who are relevant to your goals. Avoid spamming connections.
Vet all incoming requests thoroughly
Check for mutual connections, experience, suspicious signs. Decline or ignore irrelevant requests.
Add personal notes when accepting
Mention how you know them or their experience that interests you.
Organize your network
Use tags, relationship filters, and connection folders to stay organized.
Engage your current connections
Like, comment, endorse, and message people in your existing network regularly.
Limit your total connections
Stay under the 30,000 connection maximum. Prune contacts that become irrelevant.
Provide value to your connections
Share useful articles, job posts, advice etc. to maintain mutually beneficial relationships.