What is it with everyone’s fascination with LinkedIn.  I have been getting more and more invitations over the past six months than I have gotten in the past year.  It is like everyone has suddenly discovered the tool and is sending out invitations to everyone.  I have to admit it is nice sometimes, when an old colleague or friend finds you on LinkedIn.  It is a like a mini-reunion, where small talk and pleasantries are exchange.

Other times, it is someone from your school who doesn’t even know you asking to join your network.  Those are the times when I start to not like LinkedIn.   I hate saying no to people, but I pride myself on having a network of people who I know or have physically met a few times.  They are friends, old colleagues, and classmates.  They are NOT random people who I have added to make my network look huge or massive.

As such, I’d like to think my LinkedIn network could be relatively valuable to someone.  The other day, I was marveling at people who had 500+ people in their LinkedIn network…it is those people who make the site more of a Friendster, MySpace, or FaceBook where it’s a race to see how many people you can link to your profile, regardless if you know them or not.