From ActiveNetworkers

Introduction and Disclaimer

This page provides Best Practices and related guidance to Active Networkers. The advice below comes from me (MarcFreedman) and not LinkedIn. It is consistent with LinkedIn's current policies and practices to the best of my knowledge.

This Guide is not a commentary on the morality, ethics, or nature of LinkedIn's policies or the actions of Active Networkers. My purpose here is to simply share with you my tips on how to work within the system.

LinkedIn is oriented to strong connections (people who know and trust you). It is not intended for marketers. When you do anything outside of that, well ... Son, you're on your own.

How LinkedIn works

LinkedIn's rules are intentionally nebulous to account for the many ways people use the service and contact one another. LinkedIn's staff does a good job of being objective and working with policy violators. They don't proactively seek out active networkers. But they will react if they receive complaints.

See LinkedIn's AccountRestriction letter, which automatically kicks in after five complaints. They typically will respond to violations with an initial warning and only take more severe action (severe account restriction or closing) after repeated or excessive infractions.

The open-ended nature of LinkedIn policies can spell death to the active networker. Just because LinkedIn can do something ... LinkedIn tells you to do something ... or others do it, does not mean you're in the clear.

There is a huge gray area concerning your LinkedIn conduct because it is complaint-driven. It is your responsibility to avoid complaints, period.

People with small networks or only strong connections can contact their LinkedIn contacts and connections with virtually no concerns as they will receive no or few complaints.

But if you have a large network with thousands of connections and actively use it, whether you're promoting useful LinkedIn news and sites, or you're hiring for jobs in Bangalore, you will get complaints and you will get spanked. As a result, active networkers cannot operate like regular users.

Every customer complaint is taken very seriously by LinkedIn. Such complaints count regardless of validity,

• Even if that person is connected to you
• Even if your message is a connection invitation
• Even if your message is relevant
• Even if your message is sent via email

Read what LinkedIn management says at BroadcastingMessages.

Be careful

The following activities are dangerous as they can lead to complaints, which can lead to account restrictions, which can lead to account termination, which can lead to a bad hair day, and thus my bald head. In general these actions aren't a problem if you're not an Active Networker. But they can be if you're inviting thousands on a continual basis.

• BEWARE inviting LinkedIn members who openly publish their email address. While most members who do so are open networkers. Some aren't and will report you.

• BEWARE using the Outlook toolbar or contact file import. The toolbar sucks in not just your address book but your emails and any address contained therein. It's easy to simply invite everyone in your new contact list. But review that list first. There likely will be people in your address book who don't remember you, or people with addresses in the body of emails who don't know you.

• BEWARE email. LinkedIn tells you to use email, not LinkedIn, to invite people who may not know you. But LinkedIn members may still complain even if you contact them via email. Be careful about what you write in your emails. Don't make it commercial in any way. Provide an introduction and suggest that they contact you if interested. Provide an opt-in option if you ever plan to contact them again.

• BEWARE the LinkedIn update. A LinkedIn user's acceptance of your connection invitation does not entitle you to contact them via LinkedIn update or email.

• BEWARE contacting someone else's connections. A strong personal referral from a friend often works. But blindly contacting another person's connections without their referral just makes you a spammer.

Recommendations

• 1. Think before you invite. See Be Careful above.

• 2. Use email to contact people and have them send you invitations. This is mandatory if you do not have any invitations available to use. Consider using QuickLinkInvitations. Be careful though, because it may not always be the best strategy in some cases.

• 3. Send an email notice about the upcoming invitation. When you do get invitations, first send an email to intended recipients telling them you're going to invite them and asking them to reply if they won't accept the invitation. This ensures you don't waste invitations on addresses that bounce or people who won't accept or will complain. It won't give you a 100% rate on accepted invitations but should improve it and winnow out most rejections.

• 4. InvitationManagement.

• 5. Ensure people explicitly accept your LinkedIn update and email messages. This can happen two ways.
• Separate list. Create and maintain a separate opt-in mailing list for group messages and updates.
• Connecting is Opting.** Only connect to LinkedIn members who also explicitly opt-in to receive ongoing mail from you. Break connections with members who don't opt in. Read more on this at SendingLinkedInUpdates. When you do contact your connections, employ an appropriate NetworkingCampaign.

PersonalNetworkingContract

I use the "Connecting is Opting" option above. Whenever I sent a connection invitation via LinkedIn or email, or before accepting an invitation, I send my PersonalNetworkingContract. The Contract sets mutual standards for LinkedIn conduct.

I recommend this for multiple reasons.

• It ensures that I won't get complaints (well, never say never.) At least I can demonstrate that people who connect with me are also consenting to my sending them mail.
• It scares away poor networkers (i.e. those who complain, are ignorant, or are not serious about supporting their network.) This strengthens my connections for both me and my network.
• It's a good educational tool about basic LinkedIn use. I find many LinkedIn members naive in terms of networking or LinkedIn.

What if I already have a lot of connections?

That depends on the people on your list. If you're connected to many weak connections, you need to seriously start converting your connections to ensure they opt in to your contact.