I changed my approach in 2016 regarding how I manage requests to connect on LinkedIn. My previous way was simple; if I knew you I connected otherwise I declined. There was nothing wrong with this approach, but I was curious – why would a total stranger want to connect with me? For the past year, I have a bi-weekly routine where I review all my LinkedIn requests from the past couple of weeks. I accept the ones that I know, reject ones that look like spam and send the following message to people who look legit but I don’t know.
“” Hi XXX – thanks for reaching and wanting to connect. Not sure we have met each other or ours paths have crossed. What’s the motivation for the request? Darby “”
I have categorized the responses of this experiment in 4 groups:
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