You sound frustrated that people don't use LinkedIn the way you want them to. You haven't said how many invitations have been accepted this year. If it's the full 952, then I'd say your numbers are better than the average responses to Introductions and Inmails. So congratulate yourself - even if it was only half of your total, you should be giving yourself a pat on the back for sheer dedication if nothing else.
Please don't think I'm around the bend - let's get real. Recruiters are classed in the same category as telesales people pushing double glazed windows, new telephone contracts and like lawyers, best grouped at the bottom of the sea by many people - at least until they are really actively looking for a career move. "Don't call us, we'll call you".
Secondly, LinkedIn is a utility which anyone can use anyway they wish. I know lots of people who have "split" personalities simply because they forgot they were members, the email address is old and they have yet to receive your invitation. I don't know the numbers, but I'd say that at the current growth rates roughly 10-20% have been members for less than 3 months and therefore don't know yet how to use it to maximum advantage; 30% have not used it in over 18 months and of the remaining 50-60% (6MILLION users), less than 5% use it actively (which I have arbitrarily defined as being once a week) and over 50% of these are recruiters... So if you follow the math, the most active users are recruiters (no brainer); 30% of the information is not active.
I would be more interested in understanding how many of the candidates you've contacted have Joined LinkedIn as a result of their interaction with you. To me, this is a more useful metric than connecting with people already here. WHAT? WHY? you ask.
I only figured out recently that you can find anyone's public profile by doing a simple Google search outside LinkedIn and then you can use InMail to contact them. site:Linkedin.com [boolean search]. So whilst it's advantageous to extend your reach as far as possible, it seems as someone else has pointed out that there is far too much general contact which has tainted approaches with the "I'm being Spammed complaint."
Doing the right things well and figuring how to get a better result by doing something different is my inclination. Hopefully your question has sparked some ideas. Best of luck.
Alison Murray
BTW, I've done a two pager based on Guy Kawasaki's blog about How to Use LinkedIn, let me know if you want read it - it's more about the How to than my whimsical Answer here.
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