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I often get asked questions about how I manage the fact people who you don’t always know may want to connect to you on LinkedIn and then may want to be connected to your own personal network.

For quite sometime I did look at my LinkedIn network as one that was effectively a group of people who were my closest business contacts and therefore I took the approach that:

1. I never asked someone to join me on LinkedIn if I were not prepared to endorse their work so I would always be happy to refer them

2. I never responded to a request to join someones LinkedIn network unless I knew them.

However with the increase in social networking and more people inviting me to connect to their network on LinkedIn, I realised that perhaps I was being too strict in my self imposed guidelines.

But how could I ensure that the quality of the connections stayed high and that I could ensure that I referred people to others in my network only if relevant?

Well here are a few things to remember in any social networking community:

1. you are always in control of who you invite to join your network

2. you can always decline an invitation to join someones network

3. you are rarely inundated with invitations to join someones online network, so screening  invitations takes little time.

I took things a step further and have now updated my LinkedIn profile with specific guidance on how best to connect with me on LinkedIn after listening to an interview with LinkedIn expert Shally Steckerl – this is how it reads (feel free to model your profile on this but please DO NOT copy my profile word for word):

GUIDANCE FOR CONNECTING TO MY LINKEDIN NETWORK

Please read the following so that we can ensure that our connecting will be of benefit to you:

1. I love connecting people to great resources and other people that can assist them in achieving their professional goals, so yes please feel free to connect – I always try to respond to emails within 48 hours

2. I will always accept invitations from friends, business acquaintances and clients to join my network on LinkedIn

3. If we haven’t met, I am open to connecting but please send an introductory note providing a little information about your background and how we would both benefit from connecting – a standard LinkedIn request to connect won’t be responded to

4. As I consider connecting people in my network to others as a recommendation and therefore want to ensure a quality connection for all concerned I will not usually forward requests to connect you to members of my LinkedIn network if I do not know you and your work

5. Please ensure that you spend a little time writing a thoughtful and detailed requests as to the benefit to the person in my network and why they would benefit in connecting to you. In return I promise to only send you relevant, well written requests.

So if you have been hesitating about joining LinkedIn, I do hope that these tips might help you overcome your fear of joining a great business networking community, helping you build your personal brand online.

And if you have any tips on how you get the most out of LinkedIn or guidance on how to ensure that you manage your online network effectively, perhaps you’ll share them here with our Biz Growth Community.

UPDATE 19 OCTOBER 2008: If you update your profile and would like to share it, don’t hesitate to send me a link or add a comment below. As I mentioned I am delighted if you find this information of guidance and feel free to model your profile on mine but please DO NOT COPY my profile word for word.

I have just added a copyright footnote to my profile at LinkedIn which I would not have expected to have done – because I noted an ‘online marketing expert’ had taken copied my profile word for word. Mouse on forward to October 2008 for an article on why you need to be vigilant about your online identity and the reasons you should ensure you monitor for people plagiarizing your online profile.

Additional Resources:

• Read a recent article about how to choose if LinkedIn or Facebook is the right social networking platform for you

• See how I have created my LinkedIn profile for ideas on how to write your online profile
• Join me on the 14 January 2008 at 6pm (1pm ET) for a free teleseminar where I will be discussing how to build a compelling online personal profile expressing your personal brand
• Join me on the 28 January 2008 at 6pm (1pm ET) for a free teleseminar where I will be sharing tips on how to get the most out of LinkedIn
• If you want to read more about LinkedIn and how it can help you in supporting your business and professional goals this year, then why not read my good friend Jason Alba’s book I’m on LinkedIn – Now What ???