If you don’t know me—

Don’t ask me to connect on LinkedIn. I get that you want to grow your network, or sell me some new chotchke that your company just developed. I get it. I can see the value for you. But why do I want to open up my newsfeed to your spam, or my network to your requests for introductions?

If you want to talk to me, send me a message. Or tweet at me. Or post a comment on my blog. I’m pretty easy to find. I’m the only “Ezra Englebardt” in the world, if you try hard enough you could probably find my home address on one of the various social sites I post to regularly (but please don’t come to my house).

But blindly adding me on LinkedIn, when you for a company like AdSalesForYou or some other spam sounding company is NEVER going to happen. I’m more likely to help a deposed Nigerian prince get his family’s fortune back.