This webinar discussed building and engaging with your LinkedIn network. It addressed the official LinkedIn guidance to only connect with people you know versus the benefits of both quality and quantity connections. The webinar covered Dunbar's number on the cognitive limit of relationships and Granovetter's theory that weak ties can provide important information. Practical tips were provided on inviting connections, dealing with problematic invites, and engaging with your network through updates, introductions, endorsements and messages.

1. 30 Day Linking Blitz 2
Week 3 Webinar
Building &Engaging with Your Network
Des Walsh
Business Coach, Social Media Strategist, LinkedIn Specialist
LinkedIn profile: http://linkedin.com/in/deswalsh
Social web links: http://xeeme.com/deswalsh
Copyright © Des Walsh & The Webarts Company Pty Ltd 2013

2. Disclaimer
This presentation is for information only, should
not be taken as representing the official views of
LinkedIn and should not be construed as
constituting business or financial advice.
Logos are copyright of the respective companies.

3. In This Webinar
● “Only connect with people you know and trust” -
really?
● Why you don't need to choose between quality and
quantity
● How many people should you aim to have in your
network and "Dunbar's Number"
● What we can learn from Granovetter's theory of the
Strength of Weak Ties

4. But Wait! There's More :)
Practical tips for inviting connections and responding to
requests for connections:
● inviting people to connect and a neat formula for doing
that effectively
● dealing with those invitations from people you don't
know or can't remember
Plus:
● some thoughts on engaging with the people in your
network - and
● discussion

5. The Official Line
“Only connect with people you know and trust”

6. The Official Line in Detail
..., we grant you a limited, revocable, nonexclusive, nonassignable,
nonsublicenseable license and right to access the Services,...in
accordance with this Agreement. Any other use of LinkedIn contrary
to our mission and purpose (such as seeking to connect to
someone you do not know or trust, or to use information
gathered from LinkedIn commercially unless expressly authorized by
LinkedIn) is strictly prohibited and a violation of this
Agreement.
LinkedIn User Agreement, Sn. 3 Your Rights

7. But LinkedIn Makes Connecting Easy

8. Too Easy - and Impersonal

9. Email List and “People You May Know”

10. Quality vs Quantity?
Quality matters
● I never knew of any of the “super connectors” saying
they didn't care about quality!
● Know what “quality” means for you (e.g. “hub”
connector, ideal client, influencer)

11. Quality or Quantity?
Quantity matters too
For networking you need reach
● the more good connections you have the more you can help
others with introductions – and be helped by them
For search
● finding others
● being found

12. Short Story
We need quality and quantity

13. Dunbar's Number
Academic Robin Dunbar's theoretical cognitive limit to the
number of people with whom one can maintain a stable or
“meaningful” social relationship.
The number? Somewhere around 150.*

14. Dunbar's Number & LinkedIn
But:
● we are not early humans living in neolithic village
societies
● the web and social media have changed our perceptions
about social relationships
And anyway:
● on LinkedIn are you looking for “meaningful”
relationships or business?

15. Granovetter's Strength of Weak Ties
● you can never have enough connections
● it doesn't matter if you don't know them. *

16. Strong, weak & absent ties
“The strength of a tie is a ... combination of the amount of
time, the emotional intensity, the intimacy (mutual
confiding) and the reciprocal services that characterize the
tie”.
“It is remarkable that people receive crucial information
from individuals whose very existence they have forgotten.”
Mark Granovetter

17. Is There an Ideal Number?
● There is no universally ideal number
● Depends on your objectives
● 500+ the most LinkedIn shows others you have a
larger network
● 30,000 maximum
● 200 a good minimum to get reach
● A guide – multiply your age by 10

18. Inviting Connections
A simple formula: 3 options
● Remind
● Flatter
● Intrigue

19. Dealing with Problem Invitations

20. Engaging with Your Network
● Updates – yours, and interact with theirs
● Introductions
● Endorsements
● Recommendations
● Occasional messages – 50 addresses at a time
● not just promotion
● offer help
● Signal (next slide)

21. Signal - Customized

22. Coming Attractions!
Future webinars
● LinkedIn Groups: Participating and Possibly
Establishing Your Own – week commencing March
4, 2013
● Highlights of 30DLB2 and Building on the
Experience – week commencing March 11, 2013

23. We Covered
● “People you know and trust”
● quality and quantity
● How many connections - and Dunbar's Number
● Strength of weak ties
● Inviting – using one of the 3 options (or combo)
● Problem invitations
● Engaging with our networks

25. Admin Stuff
Image credits
Illustration of Granovetter’s strength of weak ties concept: Image by Sadi Carnot,
public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
http://sociology.stanford.edu/people/mgranovetter/documents/granstrengthwea
kties.pdf
Sea, with text – picture by Des Walsh
Notes:
Dunbar's number: This was based on observation non-human primate
behaviour, then supplemented by some complex calculations of how people
related to one another in neolithic villages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number
Granovetter's Strength of Weak Ties
http://sociology.stanford.edu/people/mgranovetter/documents/granstrengthwea
kties.pdf