A little over 4 years ago I spent an entire week deleting over 7000 of my LinkedIn connections that I did not know or were in other countries.  My new goal was to only keep LinkedIn connections I knew personally or are were located within 30 minutes of my office.  Why?

I have never bought in to the claims that having a trillion LinkedIn connections will result in you have a zillion people in your LinkedIn network.  It just did not make sense.

In Real Life You Have to be Real!

In real life a very active person can only maintain a working friendship and social relationship with 150 people.  This is actually knowing them by name, seeing them at least every three years and can either email them or  call and they will know who you are.

There is no way in hell..or anywhere else… someone can do more than that.  If they attempt to do more their contacts to them would be spamming.  And we know what happens to spammers.

So, I took the time out of my busy week to go through and do a gut check on who I was going to delete from my LinkedIn account I started back in 1998.  Who was I going to keep as a contact on my LinkedIn account?

Don’t Drink the Koolaide

Yes, it was risky.  I am sure I deleted people who thought they knew me and I might have talked to them back in 1998, but really…if I can’t remember them or have an email in my archives from them from the past five years that would remind me of what we were talking about..are they really someone I truly know?  No they are not.

Yes, I probably also took a hit on my reputation and Ranking with Google. And, I am sure there are a few LinkedIn influencers out there who feel someone with less than a trillion contacts on LinkedIn is not worth their time.  But you know…so be it.

I like what BalancedCareers.com had to say.. How valuable your LinkedIn contacts are is more important than the number of connections you have.  The right LinkedIn connections can help you get inside information on a company, refer you for a job, or provide career advice.

Quora has a mixed bag of answers on this subject.  Some of the answers to Quora came from people apparently drunk on LinkedIn Marketing Koolaid.  

Personally..and professionally..since dumping the over 7000 connections that I did not know I have received more requests from local business people for meetings.  From those meetings over 85% of them lead to some business they want me to do for them.  

Before the 7000 LinkedIn connection enema I received zero legitimate requests to meet.   Yes, I got spam messages from people who have 14 vowels in their name. 

It has taken me awhile.  Today, I have less than 1000 connections but over 99% of them I know.  There are a few I do not remember, but on the most part I know of all of them or will hopefully soon.

Let me know how I can help.