It happened again.
My living laboratory of what to do and not to do on LinkedIn:
I was introduced to C by email, we spoke on the phone (as I looked over her public LinkedIn profile to enhance the conversational quality of what we could do to help each other) and the camaraderie was really good. I ended the call saying I would invite her to connect to me.
A day later she accepted. I could now see her private profile and noticed she was connected to K, whom I was to meet up with again at a cocktail party the next evening. Good, it gave me yet another item to increase my talking points with K.
So I approached K and we spoke for a while. She was offering me some insight into her business and I was listening for cues to speak about how our world intersected via C, my new connection on LinkedIn.
How were the two connected? I asked.
A bit of a blank stare on K’s face.
Thinking hard.
Name not at all recognized.
Trying to help out, I clued K that C lived in {city}, was engaged in {industry}.
No glimmer of recognition. {K getting a bit embarrassed.}
{Now I am getting uncomfortable thinking I embarrassed K…picture of me at the top}
MORAL of the story:
K had connected to C but didn’t know her. The connection was lacking substance. Hit and run.
Astutely, K admitted that she probably should go through her connections to cull out the ones that she erroneously connected to, but did not know–which reduces embarrassment in future situations for all of us…
And to add to this, even LinkedIn advises that you know your new connections in some capacity before you accept their invitation:
We recommend only inviting people you know and trust because 1st-degree connections are given access to the primary email address on your account.
https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/118/kw/know+your+connections
And, they do not mention this: 1st level connections have access to ALL your other connections. Why risk that?
Next step is up to you…
