If you use LinkedIn® to any extent, you should be aware of the recent restrictions on the number of connections any one person can have. LinkedIn’s official policy for connecting to other members states that “LinkedIn members should only connect with people they know”.
CIO Magazine just published a terrific piece on LinkedIn’s Super-Connected Users that I recommend you read here.
LinkedIn® has quietly been putting limits into practice for some time now, as their membership is now over 34 million members in over 200 countries. Three key limitations that you should be aware of are:
- Maximum of 3,000 invitations to connect can be sent out from your account. This is why you sometimes receive an email that asks you to invite them, they are out.
- 30,000 connection limit
- You can belong to no more than 50 LinkedIn® Groups.
There are groups like Toplinked.com and GroupLinked.com that exist primarily to expand your connections. They provide weekly lists, rankings of the members with the highest connections and require that you accept any invitation from anyone that invites you. You are required to identify that you are a member somewhere in the header of your profile.
For many LinkedIn® participants, the perception of status is tied to the number of followers. The more connections, the more influential, successful and powerful you must be.
I have found the same thing on other social sites like Facebook and Twitter. As I have become a more active participant of Twitter with a growing list of those that I follow, I have been amazed at the amount of time Twitter users spend talking about the number of followers and the number of re-tweets they get obtain. There is consistent requests to ” help push me over 3,000 followers” please te-tweet my tweets. There are sites that rate you based a magic algorithm of followers, followings and updates.
I believe strongly in the capabilities of these services. They can be powerful web tools that can foster dramatic new connections and relationships in your life, both professional and personal. My recommendation is to keep your purpose for participating in clear view. I am using this tool to____________(answer here). Without a clear focus on your reason to participate in these social activities, it is very easy to allow them to become a major time-drain. Know your purpose, and incorporate tools like LinkedIn® and Twitter into your daily routine, and follow that routine. If you really start to enjoy the social part of these tools, create personal accounts and keep your activities in the proper area.
How do you manage your LinkedIn® connections? Does the number of connections influence your view of the person in the profile?
