I wrote yesterday why I ignore it, so it seems fair to write in the positive about what makes me accept a LinkedIn request.
- You are educated, learned, ambitious, hard-working, or have promised/succeeded in your field. It is remarkable all of the very capable and intelligent people on LinkedIn. If I can help anyone who is making the world a better place I would love to be a resource.
- You took the effort to fill out your profile and you are real. You make an effort to be pro-social by having an account and possibility opening the door to future possibilities.
- You are an expert or unique within your field of expertise. I enjoy reading and learning about other people’s knowledge and so I try to subscribe to people who have shown a history of documenting or sharing their knowledge.
- You have good boundaries. You don’t accept just everyone who wants to connect with you, and your network is filled with good contacts. I don’t look at someone’s network, but over time this becomes apparent. People who accept questionable connections you get spam from, and then you have to remove those people. If I get multiple spammers from one person then I would remove that person from my network. It shows that they don’t protect their networks from spam.
- You are committed to learning or showing some progression in your career or profile. It is inspiring to get notifications of how people I knew when they started, have grown in their careers. People who add responsibility as years go by are role models that I can learn things from.
- You have a good attitude. I have noticed that people who put their email addresses as part of their profile or invite people to connect with them, tend to be hopeful and optimistic people. Who wouldn’t want to know someone like that? I am a positive person and I appreciate people who look at life for the opportunities it gives them.
- You support some charity or worthwhile cause. It is great for all this other stuff, but if you support some kind of humanitarian effort that is really noble and worth supporting. So anyone who does volunteer work I would want to know. I find it very rewarding myself.
Any of these would make me want to connect with you. Probably more things but this is my list of what is important for me now.