From the Field: A Question About Accepting LinkedIn Contacts

From the Jaggers Communications World Headquarters Inbox:

What advice do you have as far as accepting/not accepting LinkedIn invites from people that one has little or no connection with? I’ve got about 15 sitting in my mailbox that I’m just ignoring. How close a connection should there be? I know some folks out there will just accept an invite from anybody, as there are folks who send invites out to all their connections’ connections. Is there an advantage or disadvantage either way?

Answer:

Definitely ignore them if you don’t know them. Here’s the test to perform: think if I ask you about the person you’re considering accepting – I see that you’re connected to them and want to know what you think of them as a plumber/CPA/math tutor/web designer and you look at your connection and have to tell me you don’t know them outside of being connected on LinkedIn. You don’t want to have to do that. My advice is to know the people to whom you’re connected enough to say that you think they are good at their job/are pleasant to work with/be in a group with/seemed to do well in school … other than that, just hit ignore.