The five most common mistakes made on LinkedIn

3. DON’T push your products or services

Studies comparing LinkedIn to Facebook and Twitter show it is by far the best social network when it comes to creating business opportunities. However, it isn’t an advertising platform, and shouldn’t be treated as such. Pushing your products or services too hard or too obviously can annoy your contacts – they are they to create relationships, not buy things — and that may cause them to delete you as a contact or leave groups and discussions where you are participating.

Post content that your network will see as valuable, and let them search out your company, its products and services.

4. DON’T spam new connections

It’s actually against LinkedIn’s rules to request to connect with someone you don’t know. If you pester people, they can say they don’t know you. Get five people saying this about you and you can get kicked off LinkedIn altogether.

If you do want to connect with someone you don’t know well, but have something to do with, a personalised message can help smooth the introduction.

5. DON’T accept all connections

Your network is only as strong as your ties to the people in it. If you accept everyone, you risk spreading yourself too thin and not devoting enough time to the contacts who are likely to be professionally rewarding.

There are other things to consider. At a recent SmartCompany webinar, Sue Barratt of sales consultancy Barratt said she didn’t accept invitations from recruiters she didn’t know, as she feared they were just requesting her acquaintance so they could look at and recruit her contacts.

Of course, if you don’t want to connect with someone but don’t want to see them jailed by the LinkedIn police, you can archive an invitation rather than clicking ‘I don’t know this person’.

This is part two of our series on how to use LinkedIn effectively to benefit yourself and your company. LeadingCompany published part one on Monday. This article first appeared on LeadingCompany.