When do you decline Linkedin invites? WWYD here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm more restrictive - I only accept people I've actually talked to. I get requests from people at my company whom I've never met - I don't accept those. I'm not really networking much these days though. I suppose if I were on a job hunt, I'd accept more people.

In your case I'd just ignore the request and leave it hanging in my inbox. If she asked about it, I'd just say that I'm not very active on LinkedIn and must have missed it.

+1.

[Anonymous]

I don't accept everyone but I don't EVER decline. I just ignore the request.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Accept everyone on linked in.

me too

same. its not Facebook. LinkedIn is for professionals who want to network, not become your friend.

Anyhow OP, "you're doing it wrong". Unless its a total creep that you know for sure is only trying to sell you something, then accept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't accept everyone but I don't EVER decline. I just ignore the request.

There is no DECLINE in LinkedIn. There is an "ignore" and then that invite gets archived some place so you can go back to it down the road and accept if you want to. But the sender isn't notified if you hit ignore -- they don't know if you hit ignore or you just haven't logged in in 5 months. So OP you can take either of those options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Accept everyone on linked in.

me too

same. its not Facebook. LinkedIn is for professionals who want to network, not become your friend.

Anyhow OP, "you're doing it wrong". Unless its a total creep that you know for sure is only trying to sell you something, then accept.

I think OP is doing it right and it's similar to how I do it. LinkedIn was put in place as a career networking tool -- to connect with former coworkers; bosses; relevant people you met at conferences; alumni contacts you lost touch with. So when someone reached out to you and said "hey I saw you're linked with Joe Schmoe and I'm actually applying to Schome & Co., any chance you could connect me" -- most people COULD connect you meaningfully bc it was someone that was a close personal relation or professional relation.

More and more people are doing what all the PPs are advocating -- collecting LinkedIn connections just for the heck of it to up the numbers. I think that is cheapening the value of the tool bc nowadays very often if you ask your best friend for an intro to Jane Smith, she will say -- oh, well I'd like to but I hated Jane Smith and she hated me; or we met for 2 seconds at a conference once so if I email her she won't have a clue who I am. That's not actual networking. I say use Facebook for gathering the numbers and use LinkedIn for actual professional purposes.

I keep my network small and limited to my industry for that reason.

[Anonymous]

I suspect how one uses it differs based on your age. Boomers -- known contacts, GEnX- mostly limited to the known but not exclusively, GenY -- anyone.

How they use it differs, too -- some just to provide a current contact address and notify contacts of changes; others to recruit/post/blog/attract/network.

[Anonymous]

Boomer here. I get email requests from people I don't know and I'm not even on LinkedIn.

[Anonymous]

I accept all that I recognize, however remote.

You really never know. I accepted a totally random one from some conference and then years later I found myself interviewing at the same company. I didn't even remember the guy but I reached out and just said "hey, we must have met once - can we chat?"

He didn't remember me either. But we talked, and boom, I got what I needed for the interview and landed a $100K raise.

[Anonymous]

I don't accept from recruiters. Because they when I look up companies to see who I know there, I get the recruiters as second level connections and it's annoying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I accept all that I recognize, however remote.

You really never know. I accepted a totally random one from some conference and then years later I found myself interviewing at the same company. I didn't even remember the guy but I reached out and just said "hey, we must have met once - can we chat?"

He didn't remember me either. But we talked, and boom, I got what I needed for the interview and landed a $100K raise.

Boom indeed. Helluva good success story. Congrats!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Accept everyone on linked in.

me too

Really?? Didn't realize people did that bc sometime I get invites from total strangers and feel no compulsion to accept.

Ok, let me rephrase. I accept everyone whose name I recognize.

Can I ask why? What do you gain from doing that? If you needed something career-wise, would you ever call one of those people who you merely knew by name? Would you feel ok reaching out to them to say "hey I see you have a contact at xyz, could you connect me"? Or is it just bc you don't want to be rude and decline?

It's because I don't care. If I need something career-wise, I'm going to contact someone I know regardless of our status on Linkedin. I maintain contacts outside of social media. I didn't realize people took Linkedin so seriously.

+1 No need to overthink this. I accept most/all but my husband is like you, OP and totally overthinks it imo.

[Anonymous]

I'm more restrictive about the connection requests I accept. I limit it (mostly) to people I actually have met and spoken with.

One reason is that I actually think about the fact that when I accept someone I'm giving that person access to all of my connections. So, like a PP, I rarely accept requests from recruiters because, in addition to the fact that they are going to move right on and try to connect to my connections, the alert that I've just connected with that headhunter goes to my colleagues with whom I'm also connected.

[Anonymous]

I don't accept anyone. LinkedIn is a PITA.

[Anonymous]

I limit it to people who I have met and spoken with. 99% I have met in person, there are probably a few who were phone only.

[Anonymous]

accept all invites from people I know or know of. Ignore total random ones like from India, Saudi... really? I guess I am a passive user, never send out requests for connection.