Who should you NOT connect with on LinkedIn?

Who should you NOT connect with on LinkedIn?

Look at the image of this LinkedIn connection invitation which arrived in my inbox this morning.

Would you connect with this person? 32 of my connections already have.

So why wouldn’t I want to connect as well?

If you’re using LinkedIn to grow your business, it’s not always a good idea to connect with everyone who asks you.

The clues here are in the bits of the image that I have highlighted.

BAD BOTS

You see the bit in yellow where it says Lollipop: Generating Fire & Security Leads since 2010?

That’s the name of my LinkedIn Company Page.

My new potential connection has helpfully used a bot to add in the name of my LinkedIn Company Page to the invitation. This is a great example of where using a bot doesn’t provide the best experience.

COMPETITION CONUNDRUM

And then the bit highlighted in red – he’s offering to provide me with the services that I already offer out to people. He’s a competitor.

3 REASONS NOT TO CONNECT ON LINKEDIN

So why shouldn’t I connect with him? I use three rules.

Is this person:

1. my target customer?

2. someone who is going to put up posts that my target customers will be interested in me sharing to their news feed?

3. likely to recommend any of his connections to use my services since we are direct competitors?

No, none of the above.

Worse still, by connecting with him, I am giving him access to some of my connections. AND having it look as if I think he’s good at what he does. A sort of tacit recommendation.

IS THERE ANY POSITIVE REASON FOR CONNECTING?

If he regularly posts content, then I might see people who ARE my target customers engaging with his content. So I can send them connection invitations.

Weighing up the scores, I think I will click the button to ignore.

What process do you use to decide whether to accept a connection request on LinkedIn?

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