Breaking Connections

LinkedIn now offers a way to break a connection without having to contact customer service. So if you ever regretted sending an invitation to connect to someone who accepted your invitation, or regretted accepting an invitation to connect, now you can break it by going to the LinkedIn page to remove connections.

Konstantin Guericke, Co-Founder and Vice President of LinkedIn, posted the "top ten reasons we've heard why members break connections" to the LinkedIn Bloggers Yahoo! Group:

1. Accepted invitation without realizing that sender could now ask for introductions, send profile updates, etc.
2. Wants to keep connection list visible to connections, but a few bad apples "crept in" and so now hides her connection list from all
3. Knew that you make introductions for connections, but weren't comfortable making introductions because they didn't know the sender well enough to recommend them, sender picked poor targets or sender's pitch to meet the target included only a poor value proposition for target
4. They show their connection list, but connection doesn't theirs
5. Connection didn't recommend their connections when making introductions for them, so their connection put them into an awkward position with regards to their connections who was the target
6. Connection asked for too many introductions, sent too many profile updates, etc.
7. Connection added things to their name field that shouldn't be there (email address, strange symbols, etc.)
8. Had a falling out with the connection (in life, didn't act on their introduction requests, gave endorsement to connection, but now want to remove it, etc.)
9. Wants to get rid off people in second degree who water down strength of network by having connections they don't even know [See LinkedIn Notes post "A Potential Drawback to Connecting to Superconnectors"]
10. Just too many connections--now wants quality over quantity to create a better LinkedIn experience

Of course, you may want to be careful about disconnecting--your target may notice and not be happy.