I need to do some LinkedIn cleanup. There’s a number of connections that I barely remember meeting where contacting them would feel just like a cold call. Then, when people ask for a referral to them or through them, it’s always kind of awkward.
Thoughts On Removing LinkedIn Connections
By Mike Maddaloni on Monday, May 14, 2012 at 06:00 AM with 3 comments
Editor's Note: This post has been edited to remove links that are no longer valid. A more recent post as of December 2020 explains the newer way to remove connections.
Have you ever removed someone as a LinkedIn connection?
The thought came to mind recently as a former colleague came to mind, and when I went into LinkedIn to look up their profile to see where they were working, I saw they were no longer a connection. Not only did they cut ties with me, but several other colleagues who I would go as far as saying were part of a circle of friends. Yes, there was some falling out there, but nothing anyone else would care about!
You Can Remove Someone as a Connection?
Yes, you can remove LinkedIn connections. I know this as I have removed a grand total of 2 people as connections over the years. You have to go out of your way to do so, and I found the link to remove connections through the LinkedIn Help Center. There is no remove link on a profile page similar to the unfriend or unlike options on Facebook. In the image above you can choose from all of your contacts who you want to remove, and as the second image says, it adds those removed connections to your contacts. Many people of course don’t know they have a contacts list either – if you ever sent a connection request and they did not respond, you can find those people there.
Why Would You Do That?
As a wise man once told me, nothing is forever. The 2 people I removed as contacts were a married couple (and they still may be) and I used to work with one of them. I did some Web consulting for the other, and in short, both of them treated me like dirt. I was so appalled at the experience that I never spoke with either of them again, and subsequently removed them as connections. Interestingly, LinkedIn kept the recommendation one of them gave me for when we worked together – it is still hidden, and there is no way of removing it.
As the whole idea of LinkedIn is business connections, ideally you’d want to keep them. I have over 700 connections (or as LinkedIn calls it, 500+) and most of them are people I know of recall. There are a good number whom I don’t though, and would have to rack my brain to figure who they are. That being said, I don’t have any reason to remove them as a connection.
My philosophy for managing LinkedIn connections differs from how I manage the people I am connected with across other social media platforms. As I use Facebook for personal and not for business, I have unfriended people who are purely business contacts over the years. Though I have recently signed up for BranchOut as a Facebook app, the jury’s still out as to how I will use it. Twitter followers is even different for me, as I have unfollowed people before for varying reasons, namely excessive tweet volume and non-stop self-promotion.
So I ask again, have you ever removed someone as a LinkedIn connection? Do you do it often, or not at all? I welcome your thoughts and insights on it in the comments for this post.
This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.
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Business • Strategize • (3) Comments • PermalinkComments
Comment by Hey Justin - good point on the referrals. I haven’t received many of them and those I did were for people I know, but I can see how an unknown person could cause some awkwardness.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
mp/m
Comment by I removed a connection due to similar reasons. This connection was actually a colleague (an “Associate” to the company) whom I received dismal level of respect from, coupled with his general absence of etiquette and manners. It certainly takes effort to remove a connection considering I have a handful of random connections, however, at the end, that simple act gave me the rush of power and liberation as it was the one thing I was able to do immediately to eradicate that source of negativity from my professional environment.
Comment by Michael Con 11/23/12 at 07:22 AM
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