As a member of LinkedIn, I enjoy the benefits of connecting with colleagues, friends, clients and other people in our industry.

This isn’t random spam, this is spam being created by network connections.  How can this be? Interestingly, everyone views spam slightly differently.  I have found a few, who view it as the reason they have a network, which I find interesting.

The benefits of LinkedIn are plentiful, however using it as an adverting tool is not one of them.

Obviously, everyone in LinkedIn has a product or service to promote, but I find the direct emails, which are apparently random in nature, as they not directed to me or my industry.  They are sent to everyone within that individual’s network.  Emails include everything from event announcements, requests to complete surveys, promotions pieces, invitations to other networking sights, etc.

In my view point, the value of networking is the community and relationships within that community.  As human beings we enjoy relationships with people we trust, respect and find knowledgeable in their field of expertise.  It takes time to build relationships and trust, but ever so quickly can be tainted by the appearance of violating the relationship with unwanted surveys, promotional pieces and events announcements. Would you agree?

Do I want to discontinue getting all announcements through LinkedIn?  Not at all.  If the emails are specific to my interests and industry, then yes I am interested.  It is my opinion that the best place to promote an event in LinkedIn, is through participation in a group, specific to the industry and event you are promoting.

LinkedIn Groups are made up of people with an interest in the specific field, have chosen to be part of this group and have common goals and interests.  The group board allows members to post and comment, within the specific group.  This approach doesn’t appear as random as sending your email to your entire network and reaches individuals most likely to be interested.

What do you do when you receive unwanted spam via your LinkedIn group repeatedly? Do you ignore it? Do you request to be removed for future emails? Or do you remove the individual from your network entirely?

What do I do? Good question.  Fortunately I have only been faced with this twice.  Once after frequent emails being sent to me, I look at the contact and re-evaluated the value of the connection.  In this example the person was valuable and respected by me, so I did nothing, except to delete them when received.  Glad to say they have sense changed their communication method and now use LinkedIn Groups.

The second relationship, actually relationship would not be an accurate description.  This individual requested a connection, I accepted, within 60 seconds I was sent a spam promoting his services in India.  The quickness of their action clearly stated the true meaning behind the request to join my community.  I mean really, 60 seconds.  I felt like I had been hunted and shot with spam.

How do you remove someone from your connections? It was amazingly simple.

• Click ‘Connections‘ under the ‘Contacts’ header.
• Click ‘Remove Connections’ in the upper right hand corner of the ‘Connections’ view.
• Select the people you’d like to remove from your ‘Connections’ list.
• Click ‘Remove Connections’.

What do you perceive to be spam within your LinkedIn network?  What do you do when you receive unwanted spam repeatedly? Do you ignore it?

How do you want to receive event announcements, surveys, promotions pieces, invitations to other networking sights?

Related articles:

• What is LinkedIn?
• LinkedIn To Take the Next Step to Making Groups Useful
• Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You