LinkedIn Connections

I have been on LinkedIn for 5 months and the number of my direct connections approaches 150. They were mostly made through Questions/Answers area. I mean when I answer somebody's question, very often he/she asks me to get connected to discuss the matter further, or I ask for the same. I answer questions in the fields of my expertise in self-publishing, small business and Internet marketing. I also answer some general and polling questions when the topic is interesting for me and I have time.

According to some theories, 150 is considered the right number of connections to manage in somebody's personal network. I do not believe this is true for Internet connections though. Those are not people with whom I meet for coffee, it does not take up too much of my time to maintain the Internet connections. I make sure that I answer their questions on LinkedIn and emails in my inbox as fast as I can, that's about it.

I have 50,000+ of the second degree connections and 2,500,000+ of the third degree connections. It's amazing to think of how many professionals around the globe I am able to reach out now.

There is a useful LinkedIn feature called "Introductions". When you look at somebody's profile who is not in your direct connections, but in your 2nd or 3rd degree connections, you always see a path to this person through your connections. If you have any interest to get in touch with this person on LinkedIn, you send an email through this path asking participants to forward your email further to reach the person of interest. It works, if participants pay attention and forward as asked. I received an inquiry this way myself and also forwarded.

There was a discussion on LinkedIn how to deal with such introductory emails. Some members think that they are supposed to forward introductory emails only in case if they are in a position to recommend the person who asks to be introduced to somebody else. I do not think so and just do forwarding as asked. It is their own business I guess why they want or do not want to talk to each other, it is up to the end recipient to decide whether he/she wants to accept the introduction or not. It is the Internet, I am not giving away somebody's home address after all ;-)

It is interesting to see where my first degree connections come from. I mean countries and industries. Being a generalist myself, having changed countries and industries several times, I am inclined to build a network rich in diversity.

I will do the analysis of my network and post the results soon.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/olgakellen