Different social networking sites have different purposes. There is a line between our professional and personal lives, but with advances in social networking and community building, the lines are getting blurred.
LinkedIn and Facebook are two social networking sites with different purposes, but they both suggest people you may know to add as contacts. The former warns that you should only invite people who you know well - What a smart reminder! In the past, I’ve been invited to join someone’s network without actually knowing or meeting the person beforehand, and they’ve been rejected. Why? I’m not willing to indulge personal details to just anyone.
Before you go sending out invitations to connect, keep in mind that not everybody wants to open up to you. What’s more, having a certain number of invitation rejections on LinkedIn closes the door for you to send out invites without an email address or other personal information. This can really put a damper on networking. Here are some simple ways to reduce connection rejections:
1) Only request to add people that you know and have met personally
2) Where possible, ask permission to be a connection in person
3) Add a personal note (mention how you met, what you both talked about)
Remember that relationships and communication are at the core of social networking, and intrusions are rarely welcomed. Happy networking!
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