One of the most frequent questions that I get asked is what to do about strangers who request to connect with you on LinkedIn.
Although I generally advise people not to connect to strangers, there are exceptions to this rule. People trying to connect with you are not necessarily trying to sell you stuff. They may actually need your help, or they may want to work collaboratively with you.
My advice would be to go and ask that person what they’re looking for. Under the request, you’ll see an “accept” button and next to this, you’ll see an arrow. If you click on the arrow, you will see an option “reply (don’t accept yet)”. This gives you an opportunity to contact the person before you accept their connection request. I would say:
Dear x,
Thank you for your connection request, is there anything I can help you with?
Best regards,
Danny
You’re being friendly but also direct, inviting them to reply but also asking them to get straight to the point. If the person has something to discuss, they will respond quickly and tell you what they’re looking for. You’ll know if the connection request is from a spammer as they won’t respond to you. If you haven’t heard anything after a couple of weeks, ignore the request.
So yes, it is ok to connect with a stranger if you have the intention of getting to know them e.g. you are looking to recruit a member of staff. But there’s no point in connecting with someone for the sake of having more connections. What makes LinkedIn so effective is that people you know, like and trust can help you get introduced to people you don’t yet know. But how can you do that if all your connections are strangers?
