With all of these LIONs (LinkedIn Open Networker) that are openly accepting invites as well as inviting people that they don’t know, you have to wonder as to what LinkedIn’s policy is on the matter. After all, this goes against the entire premise of LinkedIn that you only connect with people that you know and trust. And this is why there is an “I Don’t Know” response should you decide not to accept an invite from someone that you don’t know. The problem in LinkedIn’s eyes concerning LIONs is their potential to spam people because of the enormous numbers of …
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Today I received a question from a LinkedIn newbie which reminded me that sometimes I need to get back to basics and answer simple questions that sometimes may be confusing to others. The question I got today, although worded differently, is someone that is worried about sending out invitations to people that were 2nd degree connections, i.e. people that should be 1st degree connections but weren’t. It really comes down to the basic question of who to invite join our LinkedIn networks? While there is no single rule as to who to invite as this depends on your reason why …
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I received this question yesterday from an engineer who plans to start evangelizing LinkedIn to an engineering community who may not have the same view of Social Media like I do. As part of this person’s LinkedIn Objective, he wants to create his own brand of being the Pioneer of Connecting Engineers on LinkedIn. I think this is a great idea, as every professional should be on LinkedIn, and it brings up a good question as to how an open networking or LION tag can help in doing so. But what about the idea of a selective LinkedIn LION?
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Today I received a LinkedIn invite from someone who had the wording “TRUE LION” with a trademark symbol in their profile headline. I was definitely confused about what this could mean, but after doing a little research on the issue, it is apparent that there is now a three-way fight for the heart of the LinkedIn Open Networker. In order to fully understand the background, please make sure you read my previous posts on What is a LinkedIn LION? – A 2009 Revision, Are There People Monetizing Their LinkedIn Connections?, and Other Ways to Monetize your LinkedIn Connections.
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I often see this question of “What is a LinkedIn LION?” on the LinkedIn Answers section, and I already provided an answer on this definition back when I first started this blog in the summer of 2008. It was an honor that the author of the first real good book on LinkedIn, I’m On LinkedIn…Now What?, Jason Alba, quoted me in his blog when he blogged about the same issue: http://imonlinkedinnowwhat.com/2008/07/31/im-a-lion-hear-me-roar/.
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Assuming that you understand what a LinkedIn Open Networker means from my “What is a LinkedIn LION?” post, and you want to use this terminology in your profile to increase your network as I mentioned in my “How Do I Grow My LinkedIn Network?” post, the next logical question you may have is “How Do I Become a LinkedIn LION?” Unfortunately, there is no official answer for this, as the history is that open networkers have always been frowned upon by the powers that be. Since that time, LIONS’ LAIR became the default place for open networkers to register, but …
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What does a LinkedIn LION mean? LION, in the LinkedIn world, stands for Linked In Open Networker. I believe the term was first coined by the gentleman that began the Lions’ Lair at The Meta Network (now defunct), Christian Mayaud (who is a top networker himself). You can find out more background through one of Stan Relihan’s podcast where he interviews Christian.
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Everytime someone invites me to connect with them, I always send out a reply thanking them and also asking them to contact me should they ever need any help with LinkedIn. I have had so many people, either directly or indirectly, help me that I thought I should give something back to the community. Well, not everyone asks me a question, but by far the question that I get the most is “How can I grow my network on LinkedIn?” As I have seen my network grow from a few hundred to a few thousand connections over the past several …
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