Post by Colleen Paulson

I have 1,689 LinkedIn connection requests in my inbox right now. I'm typically a zero inbox person, but this is one space where I find it hard to keep up with things. If I have a post that does well (i.e. 100,000+ impressions in a day), I'll typically receive hundreds of requests in a short period of time. I don't have a VA, so it's me quickly making a game-time decision on whether or not to accept. The majority of the requests I get don't have a note and are from people I have never met. (I get that people are limited in the number of messages that they can send if they aren't premium and that's a whole other discussion). Back when I started on here, the rule of thumb was to only accept requests from people you knew IRL. These days, it does make sense to accept requests from people you don't know personally. For me, I'll typically connect with fellow alumni (CMU, Pitt, P&G, FedEx), thought leaders, potential clients, and recruiters. You get the picture: reciprocal relationships. But it's hard to know these commonalities without a note. So I'm curious: do you send a note with your connection requests as a way to introduce yourself? And what's your best practice in accepting requests?