Kiwi Scrum

The "I don't know you" hangup

Millions of people are "STUCK" on LinkedIn because they are afraid to grow their networks. If you choose only to connect to people you ALREADY KNOW, it's IMPOSSIBLE to build your real network. So you have to be more open than that. This is the advantage of joining email lists and discussion networks like Ryze or Xing, or using tools like Twitter and Friendfeed. You can watch in the background, completely anonymous, and when you feel ready you can invite people you now "know" into your network.

As your experience grows so will your confidence. When I read a profile, I believe I can immediately tell a beginner from an expert. I almost never refuse an invitation from a beginner. My role as I see it is to encourage people, to be an example, to provide a model for others to emulate.

I never refuse invitations from experienced people either.

It's up to you to choose who you want in your network. You may have a special reason to be present, but mostly invisible. If you are the CEO of a large company, or very senior public servant, you may want to keep your own network very compact. On the other hand you might encourage your PA, to have a very large network.

It's absolutely normal practice on LinkedIn to invite people you've never met from some far-off land to join your network. LinkedIn worry about this; they worry that people will be annoyed by excessive requests. They include an option in each invitation to click an "I Don't Know" tab. Black marks are awarded to people who accumulate too many "I don't know" debits. They may be banned for issuing any invites for a time.

On the other hand, it's now considered bad practice to "I Don't Know" anyone. The alternative is just to archive the message.

Open Networkers

When I started like many people I was very careful who I invited to join my network. I didn't have many connections so nobody ever invited me.

Once I had a couple of hundred connections, I decided that checking people out, was taking too much time. I was beginning to get invitations by now. Besides the LION's group was starting up, promoting the ideal of Open Networking, and I decided to join.

Open Networkers, are people who take upon themselves the burden of maintaining contact with a large number of people. Generally Open Networkers are happy to accept a connection to all those who ask. Many Open Networkers cannot ask you to join their networks because they have already exceeded the "lifetime Limit" of invitations that LinkedIn has set.

Open Networkers are not obliged to accept your invitation, they retain the right to refuse invitations, but they seldom do. Generally, if you invite an Open Networker to join your network in a polite way, they will happily accept your invitation. Most Open Networkers have a reason for building a super-large network. It's not a burden everyone wants to carry.

You can see who the open networkers in Kiwi Scrum are here.

Your Kiwi Scrum Group "setup".
What does Kiwi Scrum Membership offer?
Building your LinkedIn Network
Kiwi Scrum Newsletter
Dealing with Email Overload
Joining other social Networks
Improving your learning rate
Rewriting your LinkedIn Profile
Printable Guide from all the above pages (8 Pages)