Is There A “Right” Number Of LinkedIn Connections?

There are lots of schools of thought on this, ranging from “you should only connect with people you already know well” all the way to “you should connect with anyone who asks.” 

There are flaws with both extremes. For example, if you only want to connect with people you already know well, why do you need to connect with them on LinkedIn? And if you connect completely indiscriminately, you will wind up with a huge network where you are constantly asking yourself, who is this person and why did we connect in the first place? 

My “soft” suggestion would be to connect with people you know already, people you may work with in the future, and people you are disposed to help. I have something like six thousand connections, and they comprise what I think of as my “A” network and my “B” network. 

My “A” network has maybe five hundred people in it. These are people I have known for a long time and people I converse with regularly on LinkedIn (with all my posting and newsletters there are a lot of these). My “B” network is…everyone else. This largely consists of people who may be of assistance to me in the future, and people I may be of assistance to in the future.  My “B” network is kind of an insurance network. “Hmm, I need an SEO person.” Where do I look first? In my connections. 

Now, a lot of people will ask if I get nuisance messages from all these weak connections. I do get maybe one message every day from connections I am not necessarily close to. It takes one or two minutes to put together a reply. I’m good with that. Being known as a resource and someone with the answers has never hurt me. What’s the worst that can happen? I don’t hear from them again. What’s the best that can happen? They recommend me to someone in a position to want to do business with me. I am happy to err on the side of optimism. 

Another factor to take into account is what you’re trying to accomplish using LinkedIn. If you are actively using LinkedIn, whether to build your reach, your credibility or to generate sales leads, a bigger connection network can make sense. If you are not active on LinkedIn, then a bigger network doesn’t really make sense. 

One important aspect to take into account is LinkedIn’s stress on Following these days. LinkedIn has made it easier to Follow people. But before you just click to Follow someone, consider these three advantages to being connected over just following: 

• You can send each other messages directly over LinkedIn. This doesn’t replace email, the phone or whatever messaging system you use, but it does come in handy for LinkedIn-centric messages such as referencing someone you know mutually on LinkedIn, or drawing their attention to someone or something of interest on LinkedIn.
• You rank higher in your connection’s search results on LinkedIn. As LinkedIn is one huge database full of people, an obvious application is to use that database for searches – for suppliers, vendors, experts, new staff, information or discussions on specific topics, anything. And one of the things you will find is that LinkedIn wants search results to be relevant to the searcher, and if one or more of their connections get found in the search, LinkedIn will tend to list them at or near the top of the search results. If you are looking for a WordPress expert, it makes sense for LinkedIn to list WordPress experts you are already connected with first.
• Connections show pathways to other people on LinkedIn that you didn’t know exist. You may find a prospect on LinkedIn and see the little “2nd” postscript after their name and then the person or people both you and that person are connected with on LinkedIn. You can use this information in two ways. The first is to use that mutual connection or one of your mutual connections as an intermediary, and ask them to introduce you to the person of interest to you. The second is to ask your current connection or connections for background information or coaching in approaching the person you are interested in. 

The bottom line? Don’t sweat it. There is no “right number” of connections you should have. And don’t let anyone tell you there is. There is a right number for you, in keeping with your own unique goals in using LinkedIn. And you are the best judge of that.

And remember that you always hold the hammer: you can disconnect from any connection anytime you want. And the other party won’t be notified. Very simple, very discrete.