I have a different point of view simply because I think you can have a meaningful random connection.
LinkedIn has 26 million people who use it (according to the stats they give).
If you are looking for someone specific, just google "site:linkein.com search terms" and contact them by InMail. I find the introduction execution is fraught with delays and hold ups so it's far better to pick up the phone or pay LinkedIn for the privilege of contacting someone directly. The LinkedIn search only goes to 3 levels of connections, so if you can only hit 20,000 then chances are you won't find the best person for the type of contact you want to make.
One word of warning though - it is impossible to know 1) whether the information in a profile is truthful and 2) how up to date it is. I never knew London Business School had some many graduates the same year I passed my exams.... LOL
Oh - my connections are over 1,500 - many of them technologists who only connect with a few islands of their peer groups.
I have gotten some great advice from many of them - so don't put down the most spurious of random contacts. Most recently today a quant developer shared with me the best tools to engage my computer mad son with stuff which will keep him engaged at school and build some skills which he can rely on in his career.
I guess what I'm saying is that Strangers are only friends who haven't met yet. You never know what that next potential contact may give you down the road.
You'll just have to go with what feels right for you - after all there are "no RIGHT answers" - you'll get out of Linked In what you put in. That is the real magic of it in that it can be used differently by many groups of people and still retain it's usefulness.
Hope this helps move your thinking forward to what could be possible.
All the best,
Alison Murray
posted 6 months ago
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