Lately, it seems that I am getting bombarded by requests to be added to this person\u2019s network or that person\u2019s network by people who I have no interest in networking with. It seems that people from as far back as my elementary school days \u2013 I went to Brophy Elementary School in Framingham, Massachusetts \u2014 have found me on LinkedIn and other social networks and want to be \u201cfriends.\u201d Many of these folks are people I wasn\u2019t friends with 20-odd years ago, so I don\u2019t know why they want to be my \u201cfriend\u201d now. Nonetheless, the requests continue to come.<\/p>\n
Here is the problem: I don\u2019t want to LinkIn to these people and become their \u201cfriends\u201d and I bet I am not the only one who feels this way. If I wanted to be connected to them, I probably would have made an effort to find them before they found me. After all, getting in touch with people and talking to them is sort of what I do for a living. It is not that I am not curious about what is going on in their lives, how many cats they have, what they had for dinner or that their kids are now being toilet trained \u2013 OK, I am not curious about this or anything else about them. The problem, I have found, is that in an effort to not be rude I end up accepting these people into my network and becoming their \u201cfriends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is this wrong? Perhaps it is not being social-network honest \u2013 I\u2019m not sure that it is right \u2013 but nonetheless it is what I have been doing, so if you want to get in touch, find me on LinkedIn and we can connect \u2013 but please don\u2019t tell me about your cats, eating habits or whether or not your kids are in diapers.<\/p>\n
And now onto something important:<\/p>\n
As the summer goes on, I am happy to tell you that we are getting ready for the HEDGEAnswers 2011-2012 Launch and Strategy Sessions. This is our sixth season and it is shaping up to be better than ever. I suggest that all of you click this link to register now and get in on the discussion.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lately, it seems that I am getting bombarded by requests to be added to this person\u2019s network or that person\u2019s network by people who I have no interest in networking with. It seems that people from as far back as my elementary school days \u2013 I went to Brophy Elementary School in Framingham, Massachusetts \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[25,26],"class_list":["post-3971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-linkedin","tag-social"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t