Receiving invitations to connect from people you don't you know? If your strategy is to link to as many people as possible, then you may accept an invitation from just about anyone. LinkedIn, the company, does not advise this strategy, since the intent of the service is for people to create "trusted connections", i.e. connections between people who know and trust each other very well.
Let's say that you don't want to accept an invitation, now what?
You may be tempted to select "Decline", but I advise against it. By clicking "Decline", you close the door to being connected to this person in the future. You may also find that you've burned a bridge, and may regret your decision later.
You may be tempted to not take any action. If you do this, you may receive automated reminders or manually sent reminders to link. Also, the request to connect will show on your home page.
When I receive invitations from people I don't know, I select "Decide Later". This removes the notice of the invitation from my LinkedIn home page, and prevents reminder automated emails from being sent to me. I then send an email to the person who invited me to connect to them. I tell them that I appreciate their invitation, but prefer to only connect to those I know personally. I then extend an invitation to get to know me better, and offer to help in whichever way I can. I then hope the recipient respects my decision.
Do you have a strategy for handling invitations from people haven't met? If you do, please share your strategy by posting comments to this post.
