Are you a LION? Read this article to know the benefits to become a Linkedin Open Networker

LION means Linkedin Open Networker! When you become a LION you are open to receive connection requests from people you don’t know.

While your objective as an open networker is to connect with many people, including people you do not know, you aren’t required to accept all invitations to connect. However, as an open networker, you will never flag a person as someone you don’t know, causing him or her to be penalized by LinkedIn.

To be or not to be? The choice to be an open networker or not is yours alone. Let's look at some issues to consider.

Why Become an Open Networker

One reason to be an open networker is to maximize your reach and visibility on LinkedIn. With more connections, you can see more people, and more people can see you. Profiles within three levels or within shared groups show up in LinkedIn searches.

Another reason is that more people will see your updates. This is especially useful now that LinkedIn is giving all members access to its publishing platform. Your connections instantly become followers when you begin publishing.

The biggest advantage of becoming a Linkedin LION is that?your visibility on Linkedin will grow, and more potential clients or recruiters will get to see you. As your network quickly grows, so does the reach of your posts and articles.

Why?Not?to Become an Open Networker

LinkedIn states: “connecting to someone on LinkedIn implies that you know them well: They’ll have access to people you know, others may ask you about them and vice versa, and you’ll get updates on their activity.”

If you want to become a Linkedin open networker, we urge you to remove sensitive information like your phone number or your address from your profile.

You may add the name of your company but not the location. You may add the university you graduated from, but not your graduation year. Things like that.

Connecting Responsibly

As an open networker, you should only invite people who will welcome your connection request, since a slap from LinkedIn would greatly restrict your ability to invite, as you’d need an email address every time.

Since I'm a LinkedIn Open Networker

Unless your LinkedIn profile looks bogus, invite me to connect and include a short message. If you think you don’t know me, check out my profile and read my other posts. Then you’ll know me!?