Have you had people you don’t know asking to connect with you on LinkedIn? If you’re looking for a job you might have recruiters contacting you, but as a business owner should you accept these seemingly random connections? In this week’s Tech News Tuesday, we’re discussing your questions about LinkedIn connections and helping you figure out how to securely manage your LinkedIn connections and presence.
Connections and Followers: What’s the Difference?
Do you know the difference between a follower and a connection?
While your LinkedIn personal profile and company page should be public so that anyone can follow you and find your content, you’ll want to know the difference between a follower and a connection.
A follower is someone who can view and see all of the content you posted, but you don’t see their information in your feed. A connection is a little different than a follower. With a connection you can message each other and see each other’s content and other activity on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Connection Scams
Beware of connection requests from fake profiles!
Some people like to accept all connection requests, but you should be aware of the rise of fake profiles. These profiles either harvest your data or scam you financially. These connection requests may purport to be from a prestigious company, your alma mater, or in the same groups as you, but all the information including their profile pictures are fake.
Oscar Rodriguez, who is LinkedIn’s Senior Director of Trust, Privacy and Equity, said that “Scammers are highly sophisticated and proactive in terms of how often they adapt tactics.” Their latest transparency report indicated that LinkedIn blocked 11.9 million fake accounts in just six months. So, what should you do to safely make connections on LinkedIn?
Best Practices for Managing LinkedIn Connections
It’s a good idea to connect with people you know and through introductions from your trusted network. Think about LinkedIn as a way to build and maintain relationships, not a popularity contest.
Another best practice is when sending an invitation, always let people know how you know them, and why you want to connect (if it won’t be obvious to them). If you want to connect with someone you don’t know on LinkedIn, a great way to connect is to have someone who is already in your network introduce you.
The bottom line is this: don’t fall for these spam scams, and don’t get mistaken for a spammer. You do however want to make sure that your content and profile settings allow anyone to follow you and learn what you are about.
Links in this episode:
Similarities and Differences Between Following and Connecting
The 1,000 Chinese SpaceX engineers who never existed
