Beware stranger danger on LinkedIn - protect your reputation!
“Hello, you don’t know me but I would like access to all your business contacts!”
So asks the stranger who just abruptly introduced themselves at a party. What would you do? Politely decline? Point out that they are a stranger?
Actually, this wouldn’t happen in real life – except it does, every single day on LinkedIn. People you don’t know will contact you, often with the abrupt standard request: ‘I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn’. Yet this network is supposed to be about trusted relationships.
And we are not just talking about the LIONS – or so called LinkedIn Open Networkers – who seem to be chasing the numbers rather than meaningful relationships. Decent and honest business folk also merrily ping invites to people they do not know. Networks like Twitter – where most positively encourage followers they do not know, and Facebook, where Lists allow you to segment you friends and associates can cloud the issue, but make no mistake, LinkedIn flat out bans such invites.
In its terms and conditions it lists:
LINKED IN USER “DOS” and “DON’TS.”
DON’T
10. B. 25. Invite people you do not know to join your network.
The same document also states:
LinkedIn may restrict, suspend or terminate the account of any User who abuses or misuses the Services. Misuse of the Services includes inviting other Users with whom you do not know to connect...
It is also clearly spelt out when you are either inviting someone to join your network and when you receive such an invitation. Pop up windows, shown here, also make it clear that not only should you only connect with people you know, trying to link with strangers could backfire with limits put on your account.
LinkedIn for me has always been about relationships with people I know and trust. It has meant that if one person in my network spots another with whom they might be able to do business, I am able to introduce them to one another. Of course as they are both in my network they could always contact one another independently and quote me as the common link.
So invite a stranger into your network, or accept an invitation from one, and your reputation could soon be compromised with all manner of consequences. Everyone in your network will assume that you trust this person in the same way you trust them. Imagine if they do business with them and are exploited or left out of pocket – who will they blame?
How will you look when one of the members of your network actually asks first if they can trust the new contact in your network? Can you?
So while you can easily stop inviting people you don’t know to your network, and quietly remove those who have already slipped through the net, what can you do about the unsolicited invites?
Well you could simply click the ‘I don’t know this person’ – which punishes the sender by making them prove they know future would be contacts by inputting an email address.
An alternative I would suggest is a polite message by return. I normally send something like the following, although I also send them here to this post too!
Thank you for your invitation to join your network on LinkedIn. I value my network and follow LinkedIn’s own recommendation to only connect with people you know and trust. I am sure you would be a great addition to my network, so hopefully our paths will cross in the future and give us the kind of relationship that will support becoming LinkedIn.
If there your invite comes from a group or they reference a common interest, then do mention that in your reply. For example, you belong to the same networking group then suggest meeting up.
As for LIONS, well they must surely know they are flying in the face of the rules set down by LinkedIn? I’m not saying I will not link with LIONS, I am just ultra wary, insist on having met them and to be confident they will not pester the rest of my contacts.
If you would like to explore how best to use LinkedIn in more detail and how best to leverage it for your business, please do contact Morgan PR