Are you choosy with whom you connect with in LinkedIn?

This question was posted by someone on the Q&A section of LinkedIn and I thought it was relevant to people who are just staring to network online. My answer will be based on LinkedIn only. Since my criteria is different in different sites I will write about this subject in a future post.

I originally started out being very choosy.  This was before I actually had a strategy for Social Networking. However once I came up with a strategy and I came up with a new premise that I wrote about on an article called “Your Only One Person Away” , I relaxed my criteria for accepting connections.

My purpose for using LinkedIn is to be a “matchmaker.” I would love to be the guy who people call me and ask: “who do you know that ….?” and then refer them to someone who does that. To do this, I need to have a rather large and diverse network. The more people I add to my network, the more people I can connect.

If someone invites me to connect and I’ve never met them, I will first look at their profile and see how many people are endorsing them and what those people are saying. If I like what I see, I respond with a message asking them why they want to connect with me. The depth of their answer will determine whether I accept the connection or not.

Once I have an interaction with someone,  i.e. they comment on one of my articles, answer one of my questions, etc. then I’m much more likely to seek a connection.

What’s your criteria?

I recently became active in another Social Networking site called Ecademy. Part of what I’m doing is research to be able to share with readers of this blog and other clients about different sites and the benefits they offer.

While connecting with different people on the site, I ran across this blog post that I thought gave a good metaphor for the various SN sites out there. Do you have a favorite SN site? Why is that site your favorite?