Just read an article regarding quality of interaction on linkedin ,in terms of networkenhancement.In that article ,you may notice the images of invitationsfrom "unknown/ known" person to "unknown" person ,requesting for "add me to your professional network." Sounds funny ?

Projectedmorale of the story/article is :-why should we accept invitation fromunknown person and let them have access to everything we share on aclosed network ?

Fine, let' us now ask ourselves a simple question:)

Why we spend hours on professional /social networking sites ? There must be some objectives and what those could be :-

Ok, let me tell you about myself-i do networking on various professional and social platform for :-

1.Exchangerelevant information, pertaining to my area of interest ! It could beboth at personal as well as professional level.It could be assimple as publishing ,what i am eating now but what is the harm, ifthat gives me some peace of mind ?

2.Share the content of my blog , i have established through hard work and dedication.People reading and may be commenting on what i have created, give me a sense of accomplishment !

3.For making some money in that process of creativity, primarily for compensating the

a.Blog maintenance expenditure ( i use Typepad with a substantial monthly fee ) and

b.Time spent on shaping up the articles. ( Am i not squeezing it in somewhere else ? )

So, the simple formula of networking is :- more contacts - more exposure- more satisfaction and more money , wherever applicable ( Who doesnot want money ? ). However, the size as i said, depends onindividual's specialty !

4.Beingan Executive Search professional, i am constantly on the look out forthe right talent for my clients. So a controllable volume ofnetworking, increases the chances of identifying the candidates of mychoice.This applies to the people on the other side of the table aswell, i mean job seekers.

So,ultimately these networking processes converge to an optimumcombination of professional enhancement and Personal satisfaction.Theright mix of this combination varies from person to person.

Coming back to the point now :-

Wheni receive invitation from an unknown person, took up the trouble ofhaving a quick glance at his profile and decide then & there,whether to accept or not.It does not take more than a minute even.Sowhat's the harm ?

Wheni started expanding my network , what else i could have done, thensending invitation to unknown people ? But, i certainly studied theprofiles of the target audience and did add some professional contentwith a personal touch, like clearly mentioning their name in the emailetc.

Morethan 90% of the audience replied back.If they had thought otherwise, iwould not have received such an overwhelming response.I think , its thepositive thinking of individuals, that matters most in any transaction,be real or virtual ! We should not block the communication processentirely but install the right filtering mechanism for separating outthe spams !!

So,sending a blank invitation may not be appropriate ( is stupidity? ) buta well researched email is certainly an act of intelligence.

Author : Abhijit Kar

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