LinkedIN and LinkedOUT

It is the conundrum. Should I link in to someone on LinkedIn, or should I have rules and criteria, and other stuff? Some people love the “quality” stuff of only linking to those they know while others want the “quantity” of links because of some obscure association.

I come down more on the side of the “quality” side and pretty much go along with Thom Singer’s (http://www NULL.blogger NULL.com/profile/08230569732505245876) Some Assembly Required (http://thomsinger NULL.blogspot NULL.com/) viewpoint on LinkedIn Rant (http://thomsinger NULL.blogspot NULL.com/2007/09/linkedin-rant-and-challenge-to-bloggers NULL.html).

The problem is that, on either side, people preach that “their way is the right way” and if you disagree with them, your way is the highway. Or something worse.

Throw in social networking sites and people become overwhelmed and confused. What should they do? How many social sites should they belong to? Why?

Well? What’s your criteria?

Also, a hat tip to Jason Alba’s JibberJobber blog (http://www NULL.jibberjobber NULL.com/blog) and his article on “I use LinkedIn…But don’t preach to me (http://www NULL.jibberjobber NULL.com/blog/archives/909).”

Scot

(http://twitter NULL.com/home?status=LinkedIN+and+LinkedOUT+-+http://b2l NULL.me/khc7a&source=shareaholic)

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Scot Herrick

Adam makes a good point. Here's what I left as a comment on his post and it is worthwhile to think about here:

This is one of those things where there isn't any "right" answer -- only variations of opinions.

It would be interesting to know if the variations on the opinions reflected how the person actually uses LinkedIn.

For example, I'm a "I need to know you person" when it comes to LinkedIn. Adam and I are LinkedIn, but it was because we have blogs, commented on each others blogs, and exchanged some e-mails.

But, I don't use LinkedIn as my primary networking and personal branding tool. Having a network on LinkedIn is important -- but not that much.

But if others use LinkedIn as their primary networking tool, including all the other things you can do with it (Jason Alba's book: "I'm LinkedIn, now what?" comes to mind...), then I suspect that those people want to connect with many more people, even if the connection is more obscure.

So...are you a person who likes to know people they link to but don't use LinkedIn as your primary networking tool? Or do you want lots of connections because you use LinkedIn as your primary networking tool?

Or is it something different?
Adam Salamon

Scot,

I wrote my thoughts on my post below. When I first wrote the post, I didn't know what to expect considering it was somewhat of an experiement.

I gave my readers the freedom to connect with me on LinkedIn, regardless if I knew them or not, on the premise that we would get to know each other--after all, aren't you closing off opportunity if you turn down an invite?

A few of the connections have turned out to be great. We shared thoughts and have really created a connection. Others never even responded to my initial email.

But the connections that I did made mattered and were worth the few that were looking to "expand their network".

http://adamsalamon.wordpress.com/2007/08/16/con...