Why You Should Vet All Your LinkedIn Connection Requests!

Seriously, you should check ALL incoming LinkedIn requests to connect VERY carefully!

I just had to share this with you…

A highly regarded connection of mine, who posts regular great content, has had the annoying experience of his content being blasted by a 2nd-degree connection Troll.

For no reason at all, this person seems to wish to cause an argument. When I checked out his profile, despite it looking reputable on the surface, it appears very suspicious when you take just a few more seconds to view.

Has this happened to you?

Here’s What I Do:

Visit your ‘Privacy and Settings’ in the dropdown menu when you click on your profile photo in the top right. Under the ‘Privacy’ tab, scroll down to ‘Profile viewing options’ and turn yourself to anonymous.

Then check out the Profile that sent you a Connection Request. Is the person for real?

Here’s what I look for when I get a LinkedIn Connection Request.

The LinkedIn Connect Message

A good starting point is to see if the person requesting to connect with you on LinkedIn has personalised their LinkedIn connect message.

Personalising a LinkedIn connect message DOES NOT mean attaching a long-winded sales pitch or self-promotional spiel. Personalising a LinkedIn connection message is important for many reasons, not least because successful mutually-beneficial professional relationships are built on one-to-one engagement, not automation!

If someone has taken the time to craft a personal LinkedIn connect message covering how they can help you or how you can help them and why they’d like to connect, they are much more likely to develop into a genuine and valuable connection.

Incidentally, someone once asked me if it was a good idea to accept random connection requests, that is those that aren’t accompanied by a personalised LinkedIn connect message.

Since LinkedIn connection requests rarely come with a personalised LinkedIn connect message, you could be losing out on many helpful connections if you only accept connection requests from those that do.

However, I strongly maintain that your LinkedIn network ought to be based around people who can add value to your life and you to theirs. Think quality and relevance, not gaining vast amounts of Connections!

So sometimes a good tactic can be to accept the random connection request and then immediately message your new connection and ask if they fancy a chat to say hello. No sales, just a genuine attempt to begin a meaningful relationship.

Here are my thoughts on accepting random LinkedIn requests.

What to Do If You Receive a Suspicious Connection Request

If you sense anything odd going on, simply report it to LinkedIn.

You then have the option on your LinkedIn feed to take this kind of content out of your feed in the future.

If you click on the ellipsis to the top right of the post, you have a series of drop-down options.

Use the ‘delete’ option to take anything associated with this person off your post.

Important: DON’T INTERACT WITH THEM AT ALL!

If you do, this just tells the algorithms you are engaging with them and you get more of this stuff coming into your feed! (and worse, potentially promoting it amongst YOUR network!)

Don’t Just Hit ‘Accept’

The next thing I noticed, most unfortunately, is that some of my highly respected Connections were also connected to this suspicious Profile!

This just goes to show how lax people can be in allowing improper/inappropriate connections into their network. A BIG MISTAKE!

Take just a few seconds to check out each request to connect. There are SO many advantages to keeping your network relevant and influential. They represent you after all.

Have you ever had a bad experience after accepting a LinkedIn connection request? Let me know over on LinkedIn.