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We all want professional connections - or do we?

If you have been following this blog, you know I recommend that you establish an online presence and keep it updated, using some specific tools that are helpful for you as a professional.

I am seeing more and more people getting on line and finding and using various e-tools that I’ve recommended you use. Online presences are expanding very quickly. Have you noticed?

I have been struck by this and thought I’d share an interesting article about LinkedIn and comments on Twitter followers and Facebook friend requests to consider in terms of your professional self.

  • LinkedIn

I have been surprised over the past several weeks that I have been getting more and more LinkedIn requests to connect with people I have never met or even seem to have a connection with. Of the 5 people I wrote back to last week (asking them to remind me how I knew them or why they wanted to connect) rather than just accepting their linking request, only 1 answered me – and she reminded me that we’d met at a conference 8 months ago.

And then I read “The 10 biggest LinkedIn annoyances” by Tim Heard which outlined a few other ways LinkedIn is being used by marketers and SEO experts disguised as interested group members or asking for direct connection with you. Did you know there are LinkedIn LIONs? Now you do.

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/the-10-biggest-linkedin-annoyances/2296?tag=nl.e101

  • Twitter

Right after the Christmas holiday, I noticed I suddenly got a lot of Twitter followers – most of whom were young women who hadn’t tweeted anything at all and didn’t seem to share a lot of similar interests as me and the rest of whom seemed to be SEO and motivational experts.

If you keep up with blogs, podcasts, and Twitter all of which encourage you to thank every follower with a personal message, don’t feel you have to thank everyone. I do thank followers that are clearly interested in what I post. Those who seem to be in the marketing business (follows 50,000 people and has 55,000 followers) don’t need to hear from me to personally thank them, especially because I know they now have Twitter tools available to them to mine information from their Twitter stream to target their marketing.

  • Facebook

As we all know, Facebook lines are blurring. We all have Facebook pages - and most companies have Facebook Fan pages.

You know I recommend keeping your Facebook presence separate for your personal connections. It may be tempting to accept every request that comes to you even when they are from distant colleagues wanting to connect with you on Facebook. But consider – even if you are careful of what you post on Facebook (and I know you are), are you really ready to give your professional connections that much access to your personal life?

Let me hear from you – what has been your experience? Do you agree? Disagree?

Posted via email from sue griffey's posterous

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