How To Choose Your LinkedIn Network Size

Should you build a professional network that is small, large, or somewhere in between? It depends on what you are selling, whom you sell to, and how much time you want to spend on LinkedIn managing your network.
Open Networking
Being an Open Networker gives you a lot of opportunities to connect with others, but you will have to dedicate at least an hour or two a day accepting connection requests and answering emails from your network.
Open Networkers tend to be aggressive networkers, so they are constantly reaching out to their network, beating the bush for new leads.
Recruiting
If you are a recruiter who fills jobs nationally or internationally, you need to build a huge network to keep your pipeline full. You have to be willing to dedicate up to half of your working hours working your LinkedIn network for leads to fill open positions and to find new jobs to post.
There is nothing wrong with spending 20 hours a week networking on LinkedIn, if it's your primary source to find job listings and quality candidates.
Selling
If you are selling niche products, it probably doesn't make sense for you to spend more than an hour or two a day on LinkedIn, if your target audience is small.
You probably have a few key contacts on LinkedIn who can connect you with the right people, and you know which Groups to participate in.
80/20 Rule
Most sales professionals choose the middle-of-the-road approach. They have their professional network of 500 to 1,000 members, which gives them tremendous access to millions of second- and third-degree connections.
They also have their core members of their network, with whom they communicate on a regular basis. It's the old 80/20 rule: 20 percent of their network is most active, providing the majority of their leads and sales, while they occasionally benefit from some leads and sales from the other 80 percent.
Pros & Cons
The optimal size of your LinkedIn network depends on a lot of factors that only you can determine. Every situation is different, so weigh the pros and cons of each networking style and determine which is best for the product or service you sell.
Small Niche Network
Pros
Cons
Targeted audience
Limited ability to reach
Less noise/emails from2 2n and 3rd-degree connections
You may miss some sales opportunities, because you don't have as many 1st- degree connections, referring you to new connections
Fewer connection requests from people you don't know
New connection requests are usually more targeted because you are a niche networker
Medium Sized Network
Pros
Cons
You benefit from having a targeted audience and an extended 2nd- and 3rd-degree audience
You may be limited when you try to reach out to 3rd- degree connections
More opportunities to connect with prospects when you need introductions
You may receive a lot of connection requests from strangers or people that don't fit your professional network profile
More opportunities to receive referrals from your network
You may receive a lot of connections
Open Networking
Pros
Cons
You have a very wide audience to sell to and to help refer you to prospects
Your network is very unfocused so you have to work hard to find targeted prospects
You have access to millions of 2nd- and 3rd-degree connections
You will receive a lot of unsolicited emails from your connections
You are never more than two hops from millions of prospects
You will have no personal relationship with over 90% of your network so you won't be able to refer them
You will receive a lot of requests to Recommend people in your network who you don't know very well

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