I’m sure you’ve logged into LinkedIn at some point, seen an invitation to congratulate someone on their job move and asked yourself: “Who is that? When and why did we connect?” Well, I just cut nearly a quarter of my contacts. Here’s why and how you can hone your LinkedIn network too.
Inspired by recent ‘culls’ of whom I follow on Twitter and also Facebook friends, I also decided to apply this to LinkedIn, the social network (still in existence) on which I have been active the longest.
I was a ‘First Million Member’ when I joined LinkedIn in 2004-05. I have since accrued 1,123 contacts and have become increasingly frustrated by the amounts of irrelevant updates I receive and the type of invitations. Hitherto, I’d only cut out people who ended up spamming me with sales spiel via direct message.
Let’s face it, individual contacts may have been useful at some point in your career, but they may move on to something totally unrelated and your priorities change too. I don’t need to know recruiters in Australia anymore, as I’m no longer looking to work there. Those people I met at a round-table in Singapore or Prague years ago, likewise, great to connect but few provide relevant info for me in my UK/EU markets now.
Here’s what I did about it…
LinkedIn contacts clear-out
Early on, like many people, I accepted many invitations in a bid to appear ‘connected’ – I work in a perceptions business, after all. In recent years, I’ve only accepted invitations from people I’ve actually met or connected with via Twitter or mutual contact on email, and I take the same approach when sending invitations.
Taking a wholly Machiavellian approach to my LinkedIn contacts, I want them to:
- Generate or share useful content that will help me grow as a professional
- Be a prospect for hiring Eight Moon for copywriting, digital training, speaking or consultancy work
In short, there has to be a value exchange. And I’d like to think the content I post is of use to my network otherwise I should expect to be cut from their network too!
To review your network, simply click on ‘My Network’, then ‘See All’. I arranged mine by ‘Last Name’ and then went through contacts one by one. Some of my contacts have done really well since we connected! It’s worth revisiting your contacts for that reason alone!
I ended up trimming my 1,123 contacts down to 858 – a 24% reduction. Many of these were recruiters. I have had limited success using the recruiter route to work in the past and have only kept open those who I am confident can deliver opportunities.
Before considering cutting your contacts, check who’s given you an endorsement – you don’t want to lose those.
I put this question out to my Twitter audience and around two-thirds those who took part had never cleaned up their contact book either.
Writing a blog post about Linkedin contacts. Have you ever had a ‘spring clean’ of your contacts list?
— Chris Lee (@CMRLee) April 4, 2018
So, have you had a spring clean? What would you say are the benefits?