400 Connections

Time goes on and my LinkedIn network continues to grow. I just hit 400 direct connections this week, adding one of the organizers of SourceCon (which I plan to attend), and who also happens to be local here in the DC area.

So as of today, in addition to my 400 direct connections, I have 77.7K 2nd Degree connections and 2.6M+ 3rd Degree connections. Although I have expanded the diversity of my network some through some recent proactive initiatives (see here and here), I clearly haven't done enough as my 3rd Degree connection numbers continue to grow slowly.

My motivations with LinkedIn continue to be primarily exploratory and collaborative in nature. But even more than that, I continue to preach the value of LinkedIn to our recruiters, attempting to educate them as to why they need to be power-users of this great social networking business tool.

In the past, I have discussed my feelings around the integrity of one's social network, and why Open Networking wasn't a strategy I subscribed to. With that in mind, I went ahead and analyzed my network to see who I really 'know', defining 'know' as someone who I had met in person, sent an e-mail to, spoken to on the phone, or had any relevant connection with prior to connecting with them on LinkedIn, and anyone who I have connected with outside of LinkedIn since we connected networks.. My analysis revealed that I 'knew' about 70% of my direct connections, not bad IMO. I'm still looking to connect with those who I 'know', but also those who feel there may be a mutually-beneficial reason for connection. If we haven't connected already, let's connect today!