that seems fair. It isn’t facebook afterall. I only just got on LinkedIn and I understand where you’re coming from. I’d be uncomfortable giving a reco too if I had no idea what work someone was doing, or if it was shoddy. Similarly, I wouldn’t really ask for one if they didn’t know what I did.

So far, I haven’t been able to capitalise on the relationships I have formed, but we’ll see what happens!

Interesting perspective. LinkedIn is easily the most popular professional social network.

I agree with most of what you’ve said although I think you may be taking LinkedIn overly seriously, if that’s even possible. I agree with your comments on recommendations, but connections don’t constitute an outright endorsement for that person. I always answer honestly when others ask me about hiring a connection and sometimes that means brutal honesty. As a teacher you may have students who want to connect with you on LinkedIn. If their work isn’t the best will you deny them that access?

Linking up with people through LinkedIn has made some great connections for me through connections of connections. If I limited my LinkedIn peops to those I’ve worked with directly those opportunities would never have occurred.

You don’t know who you know that knows who you want to know and wish to be introduced to unless you connect. Knowhatimean?

@ Kemp – the network that is geared towards academic folks is called Academia.Edu – I am on there, and that is perhaps the one where I want to be highly connected.

I don’t know really whether I am taking LinkedIn too seriously, but if it’s professional, I should take it seriously, I would think.

Also, I’m a natural-born connector. I’m not a networker. There IS a difference.

@ Mehnaz – for all practical purposes, I’m also starting out with LinkedIn

Everyone defines their Social Network boundaries differently for the various services.

When I get friended by someone on Facebook from someone that I met through a conference (or the like), I generally ask them to connect through LinkedIn. With few exceptions I keep Facebook to people I have met and know on some sort of personal level. LinkedIn, for me, is about building and managing my business network. It is a broader group than Facebook.

However, others see things differently all together. Faebook is a place for only close friends and family. Others view LinkedIn as “professionally vouching” for their connections. Recently, I tried to connect with a gentleman I met at a conference. He was actually quite insulted that I would look to connect to him on LinkedIn since we had “only met over a few beers, and that just doesn’t cut it in [his] books.” At first it sounded a bit rude to me, but upon reflection it shouldn’t bother me because I have my own rules for these networks, which some might find rude, silly, or strange.

There really is no set rules for any of these tools or services. If what you’re doing, works for you then you’re doing it right.

I agree with the recommendation argument. However, I would add that if someone requested a recommendation and I did not feel comfortable writing one, I think it is important to give good feedback to explain why that is so. Not having enough experience of their work is a good reason to not give a recommendation, but if you know their work to be shoddy, I guess that makes it more difficult. Perhaps not so much if you have worked with them directly, because hopefully you already gave them the required feedback to help them improve their work, but more so in situation 2. Am I obligated to be honest with them or can I rely on a lack of first-hand experience to put-off the request? Maybe it’s almost a bigger issue.

I will say that I am guilty of one thing here that is not mentioned but obliquely referred to – accepting friends I do not know on Facebook and connections on LinkedIn that do not necessarily make sense. In those cases I would say that lassitude/annoyance at outstanding requests allowed me to cave (in the first case), and in the second case, I often add people to LinkedIn because I believe in the power of weak ties (from the oft-cited research of Mark Grannovetter I believe (off the top of my head)). And I think that although I don’t know how these people might help me in the future (or how I might help them), being connected on LinkedIn is more useful in bringing out the value of that connection than on a lot of other networks (twitter being the obvious exception in my view.)

When I meet professionals who are curious about LinkedIn, I often say that I use it as my online rolodex that I don’t need to update. Rather than losing a business card and losing track, people can change jobs 2-3 times and I know how to find them if there’s a desire to connect. That’s the primary objective.

That said, it seems like you’re treating the entire “connection” on LinkedIn as an endorsement, which is pretty legitimate. Keeping your network close and manageable makes a lot of good sense.

My take on this is similar to what has already been voiced here, meshed with some of your own concerns.

I only accept connection requests from people who I actually know. If I know for a fact that the individual’s reputation is shoddy, I respectfully decline it. You understand some Portuguese, so you’ll probably get the meaning of this maxim: “Diga-me com que andas, que eu te direi quem és”. No need to translate, right? That pretty much explains why I’m somewhat guarded about who I connect with.

When it comes to recommendations, the stakes are even higher. I see them as a form of reference that I’m posting about someone’s work. Hence, it is imperative that I have worked with him/her in the past, and that I do indeed have enough respect for the person’s work.

A couple of features that haven’t been discussed, and that you might find useful on LinkedIn, are “Answers” and “Groups”. I’d have a look at them. They may be good platforms where you can discuss your view on both areas of work that you’re involved with (academic and social media).

Hope this helps!