Is Linkedin becoming Facebook? Hundreds of connections but no network!

I’ve often thought about this subject and the similarities between our personal and professional lives. These platforms that were designed to bring people together can be the same things that keep people apart and away from building strong relationships.

How many friends on your Facebook do you speak to/see/communicate with? One quarter? Less?

At times, it feels like it’s more important to have the largest number of Facebook friends than focusing on connections with a smaller group of people that you spend time with, socialise with, communicate with share thoughts, feelings and genuinely take an interest in one another’s lives.

I notice everyday more and more articles on Linkedin aren’t focused on building a network or sharing great ideas about working better, working smarter, leadership, motivation and general insights. They are opinions about trivial things that add no value in the professional world.

Why is it important to have hundreds sometimes thousands of connections if none of those individuals add anything to your professional life and you to theirs?

In the job that I do I meet people every single day looking for advice/help, as to best shape their career or best attract talent to their organisation. Whilst these interactions are usually interesting and informative they tend to be re-active to a set of circumstances whether someone is looking for a job or looking to find people.

Very few of these are people looking to grow and cultivate a network for the future; But at any given point they might need to lean on them for something. Perhaps a specific role, or general advice, maybe to bounce an idea off or just generally hear someone else’s point of view.

This isn’t anyone’s fault as we get so engrossed in our day to day lives, they’re busy right?! Most people have demanding jobs, some have kids to look after, homes to tend to, the thought of proactively networking just doesn’t come into the equation. And why would it? You’ll seek these people out when you need them. People you’ve been meaning to catch up with for years or that event that would probably be good to attend but you never have the time.

A lot of people seeking work come to me and say I wish I would have spent more time pro-actively nurturing my network when I was working as it could have been of great use now. But the age-old adage of not having enough time always comes back as the reason they haven’t.

But if it became part of your professional calendar and an activity you just did rather than procrastinated over it might just be worth doing. What if we viewed it as an opportunity once a month for personal or professional development? To meet individuals we may not have ordinarily come into contact with?

Someone who I respect greatly once said you have a professional network and a personal network. The more people you’re able to move into the bracket of being in your personal professional network the richer your work and personal life would be. This is so true, you end up having mutually beneficial relationships both in and out of the work environment.

Now to be clear I’m by no means perfect. I have only taken this approach over the last few years and where possible I will always introduce people from my network to one another for nothing more than it may help them in the future. I feel a smarter more rounded individual because of it. I’ve learnt a lot and had some very interesting meetings where I’ve added value to the other person as much as that person has to me.

Some people are great at this already, but for the rest of us, I would encourage you to take a bit of time to reflect on what state your network is currently in, where you would like to improve it and then seek out these opportunities to grow it. Have the odd coffee meeting, go to lunch, attend that networking event you’ve always been meaning to go to. You might find that by viewing it in a different way you’ll have a stronger group of people that can improve you personally and professionally rather than just when you need them.

So in conclusion I’d like to consider a couple of things: would it be too difficult to target meeting one person a month? It doesn’t matter how or where you meet them, could be Linkedin or across your wider business or through a friend or colleague but could you meet them? Why not take the opportunity to share ideas and opinions that could help you in and outside of the workplace?

Be more stringent around who you connect with. This will ensure your feed isn’t clogged up with irrelevant conversation or non-value-add posts. Reflect on who is currently in your Linkedin network and whether they should be in there. Finally, the ones you do want perhaps drop a note to see if it’s about time you caught up……..