Quantity vs. Quality

As LinkedIn has gotten more popular, I’m getting more and more invitations to join networks.  While most of these invitations are from people I know and have met in person, a few have come from people whose names I don’t even recognize.  Since I’m very good with remembering names, the fact that these don’t ring a bell causes me to believe that I’ve never met them before.

When you have your own business, getting wide exposure for yourself and your company is important.  So the temptation is there to be “connected” to as many people as possible to increase your visibility.  And services liked LinkedIn and Friendster make it so easy to do just that. 

But how good is it to be visible to someone who couldn’t pick me out of a police line up, and vice versa?  How strongly can that person recommend me to others?  In fact, might it be more detrimental to link my name to others I can’t vouch for personally?

While quantity is important in building your network, don’t forget that quality matters too.  Be careful whom you invite into your network and whose you join. 

© 2005, Liz Lynch
Liz Lynch is founder and executive director of the Center for Networking Excellence which develops products and programs to help professionals learn how to build profitable relationships.  If you're ready to start networking smarter, get your FREE tips now at www.NetworkingExcellence.com .

Comments

[Andy Shaindlin]

Your quality vs quantity comment is right on the mark, and may well apply to both business and social networking sites. But it might mislead some people to mention (in this example) LinkedIn and Friendster in the same breath.

While they perform the same function on the surface (making one's own network visible and accessible to others who might benefit), the fundamental purpose of each is very different. LinkedIn is for business networking and Friendster is primarily a social tool. I use LinkedIn and find it helpful, but increasingly when I mention the site people say "I don't want to be on one of those sites where people post goofy pictures of themselves and use silly nicknames instead of their real name." That describes a lot of the social sites, but few of the business ones.