Are You a Good 1st Level Connection?

After 13 years on LinkedIn, I have developed a perspective that many members have yet to acquire.?Especially early on, I was a polite individual who generally accepted a lot of requests.?It has only been in the last 6 to 7 years that “the system” has been making suggestions for people to connect with.?Before that it was all up to individual members.?In the early days of LinkedIn there was a very strong emphasis on only connecting with people you actually knew; that you had physically met.?In today’s virtual world (especially post pandemic) that is not practical.

If you are shrugging your shoulders and thinking “who cares” I can tell you there are many advantages to being connected on a 1st level, the most important is the ability to communicate without restrictions.???

Trust me, if you are using this platform to build business you really want that capability.

My article title raises the question about a member’s value.?

I am very focused on expanding my connections in specific geographic locations.?I recently came within 5 connections of LinkedIn connection limit (30,000).??It is frustrating to see a member’s profile, knowing that they could be a good resource/connection and not be able to try to connect.?

I am not one to let artificial limits restrict me.?My only choice was to find members who I am connected to on a 1st level and eliminate the connection who I saw as not having any value.

If I was to reach out to each one of my connections once every year, I would need to communicate to over 80 members every single day 365 days a year.?Not going to happen. ?But as often as I am able, I do comment on posts (where I think I can add value), when notices of promotions, new jobs of even birthdays I try to send a positive message to a member.

Searching (geographically) I found people who I was connected to that I had nothing in common with (personally or especially professionally) that I had NEVER heard from.?Since I ALWAYS?send a note when I request a connections and ALWAYS send a thank you note it is easy for me to tell who initiated the connection.?Are you a member who initiates a connection and then NEVER communicates again??How many members even think that way?

It is time to start thinking in more positive ways.

The world has gone virtual.?It is very hard to imagine that ever changing.?Finding and maintaining 1st level contacts on this platform will become more and more important but that won’t happen if you do not prove to be a valuable connection.