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Got a linked in friend request from an unknown rep at vendor I don’t deal with.

Should I accept it so I can see what it is they want to try and sell me immediately after? It’s possible they just want to be friends, unlike the last 10.

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I have a LOT of people on linkedin I have never talked to before, it doesn’t look too bad to have quite a few connection, however if they are trying to ‘sell’ on me, they will certainly be kicked off the list.

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I guess I don’t understand the whole point of networking if you aren’t going to accept, even from random folks. More connections is never going to be a bad thing.

That said, if it’s just a sales pitch, get rid of 'em.

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Every random invite I have received has been a sales pitch.

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Some of the random invites I have gotten were job offers so its not always a sales pitch.

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I feel LinkedIn is the business version of Facebook. It may not have always been this way but has gotten so over the last few years. I have a profile but resist the “Premium” version at the tune to $30 per month. I can spend that money other ways and the LinkedIn contacts have never really benefited me career wise.

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You must be the minority here. I don’t know of anyone that benefited career wise from LinkedIn.

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It’s really almost a time sink. I have talked to exactly one person that I had a desire to talk to that wasn’t available through other means to me. It was someone from back in College that I lost track of that found me there. I have never looked over my acquaintances profiles unless they asked me, hey does this look good, nor do I check up on them because I have other things to do with my day. I already have contacts with my vendors, and I call them if I need something.

If I want to find tech professionals, I’d come here rather than linked in because I can actually see their posts to find out if they know what they are talking about.

The only real value in it seems to be for people trying to sell things to other people on there. I know I’m not alone in this opinion.

Who here has used Linked In for something that was easier, or not available by doing it another way? If so, what did you use it for, and what kind of results did you get?

I should probably update my profile as I don’t think I have really done any major changes in the last 3 years.

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My last two jobs have happened directly because of contacts on LinkedIn. It also meant I was able to research the company and interviewers beforehand.

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You do now.

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I’d recommend accepting the invite. You’ll grow your “network” and help others expand theirs…

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I have just thought…If everyone on Spiceworks was to friend everyone else on Spiceworks in Linkedin, it would cause a massive denial of service attack on itself!

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Let’s do it!

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LinkedIn is an incredible platform for businesses and individuals to connect, unlike other social media platforms, LinkedIn has maintained a professional outlook. If someone from a vendor were to request to connect with you it can potentially further your own network, which can in return, further your career.

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If you ignore said vendor’s “friend” request…

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I have, but not through connections - it’s a more full version of my resume and also includes projects, volunteering, etc. In fact, for the new job I just got, I saw one of my interviewers viewed my profile before the face-to-face interview.

It’s good as a tool to market yourself, but I’d agree on the connections to an extent.

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@Jess

I get it from the vendor side, I do. Look at it from my perspective. It’s the equivalent of someone calling me up and saying hey how are you, long time no chat, how’s the wife and kids… Cool… hey listen I was wondering if you could help me with…

It’s not really a friendship call, know what I mean? In other words the call wouldn’t have happened if they didn’t need something. I have vendor contacts on my linked-in from reps I’ve actually talked to before. Some of them aren’t even at the same company before.

So what it boils down to, is Linked-In at least for me consists of 3 types of messages.

Annual happy job anniversary.

Recurring “so and so endorsed you for a skill they have no idea that you know, have never seen you use, and in fact you didn’t have when you worked together”.

Vendors trying to sell me stuff.

I get cold called plenty, and e-mail blasted plenty as it is. If all that’s coming out of linked in is stuff that I really have no desire to see, does it have a point for me, other than perhaps if I decide to go job hunting?

Of course now, we’ve chatted and I’ll happily accept your invitation if you send one. :slight_smile:

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I would actually say to vendors, Spiceworks is probably a better platform for making contacts but how you go about it makes a huge difference and it can easily blow up in your face. I’ve seen vendors doing it right where they actually give very helpful information in threads and I look at that and say hey, these guys know their stuff. That makes me want to look at that vendor for products.

For example, I’ve looked at Starwinds for replication. Still using VMware’s VSA but eventually I will have to migrate to something and they will be very high up on my consideration. I see Kooler all over the place answering questions.

We are now a Unitrends shop and that’s in no small part due to Katie’s numerous responses on Spiceworks.

We’re currently using a free version of Netwrix’s AD/GPO auditing which I hope to be purchasing, again learned about here.

Ryan, Xbyte is another company I’ve learned about here and have a very positive opinion of. All I need now is some budgetary money and I could make us both happy. (I’m not holding my breath on that one for the near future.) Fyi I was going to mention you before you even replied :slight_smile:

I get your point about networking, but that’s not what is really going on with Linked in from my recent experiences. My experience has been that I’m there to be marketed to.

I’ve also seen vendors that seem to exist just to plug their product in every thread they can. No useful info, just hey you should look at our product. Not really inclined to do business with them because they aren’t adding value to me.

This could just be vendor overload from my perspective. I have enough going on in my day job that dealing with yet another way for vendors to cold call me is a turn off.

I’m leaving out a lot of people/vendors that this community has introduced me to, I just tagged a few that I’ve found very helpful.

@Netwrix

@katie @kooler-starwind

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Thanks for the awesome call out Patrick! It’s great to hear that we’re still doing a good job of connecting in here.

I get some pretty random requests on LinkedIn too. If I see that we have mutual connections in common, I’ll do a bit more investigating, including sending them a message. I think with the new suggested connections feature on there, people are just clicking away.

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