Sharing Contacts Via LinkedIn - where's the tit for tat setting?
July 28, 2008
I might be missing something, but it seems there is no way to share contacts reciprocally on LinkedIn.
One of my pet peeves on LinkedIn is when people ask to connect with me and then don't actually share their connections. I'm on linked in to share my connections and hopefully vice versa. Often, I'm just curious to see who is connected to who. However, viewing a person's contacts actually gives me a lot of context to their bios and profiles. It's invaluable to get a better understanding of who my contact is- especially when we're not close friends or colleagues. It aids me in building a valuable network of loose connections, which is really why I use LinkedIn.
I don't really understand why someone would use LinkedIn and not want to share connections. If it's just for the address book, there are better alternatives. Since they already had my e-mail to make the connection in the first place, why bother with LinkedIn? I guess I wouldn't mind people adding me to their LinkedIn address book if there was a "share contacts reciprocally" setting. If there is, I can't find one.
Maybe my use and view of LinkedIn is too simplistic?
Do you share contacts? If not why not?
Interesting ...
After checking my settings, I don't share my connections.
If you want to connect to me, then that's cool, you can connect to me. Why would you assume that means I'm happy to share all my connections with you? If you want to connect with someone and I am already connected to them, I believe I still come up as a possible connector for you, which is fine.
That said, I agree looking at the connections can be helpful, so I'm prepared to give this some more thought. My thinking is in a transitional stage as you can see here:
http://www.financialstoryteller.com/2008/07/redefining-my-use-of-linkedi...
Maybe I need to do some more redefining ...
Granted, sharing is my expectation
Hey Stewart,
True, it is my expectation that I would like to have shared connections. I generally use the site for recruiting and contacting with potential business/research partners. I've only used the LinkedIn "introduction" feature once. It actually felt too impersonal. The system felt like it was in the way, if you get my meaning. Even then, I found the person I wanted to be introduced to by viewing the person's contacts.
Conversely, I normally ask for introductions by e-mailing my LinkedIn contacts directly and then only after viewing their bios and connections to ensure they are "likely to be helpful". I generally write an e-mail introduction (often people with 100s of contacts forget how they are linked to me) and then state why I am writing and if they "know" of anyone who can do "such-and-such" or knows "so-and-so". My connnection then usually ask a few follow up questions and then send a non-LinkedIn email introduction.
I just read your post. Similar to you, I have chosen to keep my network meaningful. I only accept people I've met or people who have written a meaningful introduction as to why they want to connect with me. I can tell you about everyone in my contacts list to some extent. My contacts actually say something about me. Opening it up to anyone actually is counter to helping my loose contacts understand who I am and how I might be able to help them.
Great Recruiting Tool
I should point out that I have found LinkedIn to be an awesome recruiting tool. Although, I use the built in e-mailer when looking for potential hires, I use the system similarly to when I am looking for a personal introduction. I only send LinkedIn e-mails to the contacts most likely to "know" of someone suitable.
Good point
Reading your comments above I realised something and thought, that demonstrates my comment about still redefining!
It's this, by reducing my contacts to those who I do actually know, then they DO become a reflection of who I am to some extent. I don't think I've reduced as much as I want to, especially if I then open my contacts to my connections and have that network say something about me.
Apart from the old world approach of "lots of connections = must be interesting to know and connect with" changing that dynamic to something more interesting and apropro is very interesting.
Love to see your comments on www.disqus.com then this conversation would automatically get fed through my friendfeed to my blog - guess I'll have to write a proper blog post about it!
The use of LinkedIn
I am (as you know, David) on the job market. I am not 100% sure of how I would use LinkedIn, considering that the vast majority of the people I know who use it are in the tech world. Therefore, rendering a substantial portion of the people I want to reach (those who work in the environmental field) kind of out of the loop. If I knew that more people in the Vancouver enviro-geek scene used LinkedIn, I would use it. But yeah, I agree - it seems kind of unilateral to have connections shared only one way. Reciprocity is key.
Linked?
I just got an invite to join today, by a blogger out there that I read and reads me. I am not sure if I should fully join the site. I use Facebook to connect to my immediate circle of friends and I don't know LinkedIn could offer me anything, as I do not have a business to contact people about. I am curious how it works though, and have registered, once I have more time to give it a look over I'll know more about what it potentially could offer or not.