Rejecting LinkedIn Invitations May Bring Unintended Consequences

Rejecting a LinkedIn invitation, even politely, can have unintended
consequences.

In my free report, "How to Double Your Income in Six Months Using
LinkedIn", (shameless plug: see MLPF message #2400), I say this:

"I’ve heard of people wanting to build a certain “type” of network. The problem is, you don’t know who your friends know, so you can’t prejudge how your network will turn out by selectively inviting just a few people. And since most of the important things in life are as a result of “weak” social ties, according to Granovetter, it makes no sense to limit the size and scope of your network."

This applies to rejecting invitations as well as "not inviting
people".

The problem with rejecting invitations is that it can have unintended
consequences, such as creating negative BUZZ about you... Look at
what it has done here! No matter how well-intentioned or even
well-documented policy about your rejection is, it has the potential
of being taken personally by the recipient. We're all human, and many
of us actually have *feelings*... And negative BUZZ is not what you
want in a professional social network.

If you feel the need to reject someone, it may be better to let the
invitation expire without action, or even better, just click on the
"Decide Later" button, which will stop LinkedIn nags about the
invitation until it does expire.

If you don't have something positive to say, don't say it at all.

Joe Bartling
https://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=62910