This week I went over 1,000 LinkedIn connections.
No I am not a [LION] and I am sure there are many people with more connections than this. However it felt like a milestone and one I should celebrate (a bit like the ‘you are in the top 1% of most viewed profiles on LinkedIn’ email many received a few weeks ago).
That being said does it really matter?
In the real world it is said you can only manage around 150 friendships at any point in time, maybe offline is the same. One social media expert said to me, you have to limit your connections to around 600. The stronger the connections the better.
In the virtual world where we are not bound many of these physical rules, maybe it is different. Think of it this way, the wider your network, the more interactions you have, and the more chance you have to help and assist other people. This is the twitter model in action…
So I am not sure how much the number of connections really matters. The pure absolute number is probably the wrong metric.
I feel what does matter is having a network of strong connections, people in the same industry, friends and colleagues you trust and want to hear from, people who would be happy to hear from you.
That number maybe 200, it maybe 10,000, it is the relationship in that network which is important.
For my network (who will see this article appear on their LinkedIn wall), thank you. I enjoy the articles you post and updates you have. Please stay connected.