Real quick wanted to add another tip on how to get more connections on Linkedin. And FYI I'm over 5100 now so these techniques work. That's about 1000 connections in the last month and I've only sent 250 invites out. And another 100+- resends.

Old Invites can be a Gold Mine.
Yea I know you already sent them one invite but somehow it either got ignored or lost or forgotten.

I started going through my old invites and resending the invites to people and they started accepting them. Many replied back and stated they didn't know how they missed the first one, so something at Linkedin might be loosing invites or people aren't clearing out their invite box regularly and it gets archived/lost.

So go to your invitations then go to your Sent invitations.
Sort by click on the Status column you will see a bunch of invites that have a "blank" status. Then RIGHT click on each "subject line column" (this is where is says "Invitation to connect on LinkedIn" or "Join my network on LinkedIn") and open in it up in a new tab or new window. Then I click on a tab and scroll over the person's name and it will pop a little java window with a summary of their profile, I double check to make sure their are not already on my first level and click the Resend Button. I then type in a more personal note as to why I want to connect and hit send.

If there are any invitations without an email address or LI says they can't be delivered you can Withdraw the Invite. But, from what I've noticed, "Withdrawing" the invite does not necessarily put it back in your pool of available invites.

Once you go thru all the ones with "Blank" status, use the page numbers at the bottom and find the ones with a "Sent" status and do the same thing, Right Click and Click the Resend button and write a more personal note then hit Resend.

This will change both the Blank and the Sent status to a Replaced Status.

After a few weeks (3-4) you can go back thru all the Replaced and Resend again. I'm not sure how many times you can send someone an invitation before Linkedin won't allow you to send any more and my guess is that if after 2-3 Resends they still have accepted they either aren't going to ever accept or are just not active on Linkedin.

Also be fore-warned that if someone gets let's say 2 invites from you (one original and one resend) and they IDK both invites then Linkedin counts both IDK's against you. And with the 3 strike rule they will put your account on restriction.

Reference: An IDK is and response by the person receiving the invitation of (I Don't Know "Sender's Name") which not only declines the invitation but also puts a negative "mark" on your Linkedin profile. After 3 IDK's you will no longer be able to send someone an email without knowing their email address and Linkedin will not release additional invitations to you after you use up your initial 3000 invites. On a first offense of 3 IDK's they ask you to read the rules and agree to abide by them via email. Second offense they won't release more invites until you re-read the rules and "clean up" or explain your IDK's and third offense it's off with your head:-) just kidding same thing, you have to re-re-read clean up the IDK's and they won't release more invites to you =-( But the third offense they give you a much sterner warning and threaten to take away your account etc etc.

Jeff Weidner
HTC Research
925 313 9005 X 200
jeffweidnerlinkedin@gmail.com

And join my group on Candidate Pipeline Development(TM) on Linkedin at http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/44169/3ED8F804D9C7