As an entrepreneur and Connector with Boston World Partnerships my network expands at a pretty rapid pace. That’s a cool thing, as I love bringing people together in mutually beneficial ways. Obviously this advantageous to me as well, since it is a lot easier to get introduced to key collaborators.
LinkedIn is my main portal for network aggregation, but there’s something missing from their approach. The more more networking I do, the clearer it becomes that there are two types of networkers; those who bring anybody into their network and those who are more selective.
I’m one of the more selective ones. I want to get to know you pretty well before adding you to my network. After all, LinkingIn to you means that I’ll go to bat for you and ask for favors and introductions on your behalf. If you’d like to network with me that’s great! Let’s do lunch or talk on the phone and get to know each others’ core strengths and primary interests. Then I’ll be able to recommend you with confidence and vice versa.
Does that feel to exclusionary? I don’t mean for it to be. So I wish that there was a way to indicate our level of relationship in LinkedIn. If we’ve met once and belong to the same group, for example, then we might consider ourselves to be ‘acquaintances’ whereas a mutual history together might indicate that we are ‘colleagues.’ What do you think? If you use LinkedIn, or a similar tool have you encountered this issue?
