Tips, techniques and advice on getting the most out of LinkedIn

When I conduct LinkedIn training sessions, one of the concerns I hear most often from my business clients is that they receive invitations from people they don't know. The question they ask me is, "Should I accept these invitations"?

My advice is that you should accept invitations from people that you know and trust – because after all, you are exposing your connections.

To decide whether to accept a connection you don't know, you should view profile of the person who sent you the invitation. It will become pretty apparent to you whether you should accept that invitation – or not.

Pictured above is the profile of an individual who sent me a LinkedIn invitation. Take a look at Ralph Falcon's profile. Would you "accept" his invitation?

I hope you answered a resounding "NO!" If you did, great for you. If you answered "yes", then let me point out the reasons why this particular profile is "fake".

The first giveaway that this is a phony profile is that Ralph indicates that he is in sales at "Vandalay" [sic] Industries". For any of you Seinfeld fans out there, you know that "Vandelay Industries" is the fictional company that George Costanza once claimed he worked for. Our buddy Ralph though isn't that smart, because he mis-spelled the name! The next clue that this is not a legitimate profile is that under "Education", he lists "Bojangles School of Economics" – which doesn't exist.

Of course I did NOT accept the invitation from this Ralph Falcon. What astounds me though, is that he has 16 connections! Obviously his contacts blindly accepted his invitation. Be sure you don't make that same mistake.

To go one step further, I "flagged" his profile to LinkedIn as being "spam" – hopefully saving others from being duped into connecting with him.

If you haven't been applying a screening process to your invitations, then it's time to do so. Let me know if you have come across "fake" profiles.