Overview
There are some people that you should not send an invitation to connect to on LinkedIn. While we are a community that is inclusive, some people wish to exclude themselves or they are not aligned with the principles and values of the Connect Collaborative. Remember you are are inviting people to meet with you, not attend an event but the reputation of the events you use and the people who attend those events create a real perception of your network.
As the MC repeats every event, the Connect Collaborative is fiercely independent so that you can build your network.
Help your Fellow Collaborators
The following procedure is quite easy so please make the effort to regularly upload the exclude list as this will help us all!
Who should I add to the ‘Exclude’ list?
You are creating your own, personal Hub around you so obviously don’t invite people who you don’t want to meet, but the Exclude list should include:
- People who you have communicated with who express a strong aversion to being invited to the Hub (sometimes again) i.e. “can you guys please leave me alone”. Often, this will be people who have a complete misconception of what the Hub is about and, or have never attended. While it is worthwhile clearing up any misconceptions about the platform and your intentions, your job is not to convince them of anything and it is important to respect their wishes.
- People that you believe it would be unwise for others to invite to the Hub (don’t be overcautious – check with your coach). Recognise that people who have rejected your invitation to meet you doesn’t mean that their timing won’t change in the future and they will be grateful that someone contacted them again.
- However, it is OK to exclude someone who is extremely rude or negative in their conversation – fortunately, they are only a tiny minority – let’s all do our bit to keep our culture as positive and uplifting as it can be!
- People who are already attending the Hub and are Active Network Builders i.e. on the NBS and attending the workshops, and they don’t want to get snowed under answering invitations to connect.
Note: If this is you, please feel free to put yourself on the Excluded list by following the simple instructions below
Also, before connecting with people attending the Hub or other collaborators on LinkedIn, consider these important points:
- First, speak with the person they are connected to i.e. their primary relationship. They can facilitate an introduction and you will demonstrate to them and others that you are respectful of all the relationships in the room.
- If they are actively building their network, you can find their details on the Fellow Collaborators Sheet (along with the name of their coach) and then you can reach out with an email or give them a call.
How to add yourself and others to the Exclude list
To add people is relatively easy and can be done through the Fellow Collaborators sheet. After opening the FC list, go to the Exclude tab


Then just enter the details in the appropriate cells and columns as follows:

Hints
There are 2 Filter views that have been set up for the Exclude tab – one that lists alphabetically by First Name, the other by last name. This may help you quickly find someone you are looking for.
How to upload a list of Excluded profiles to Linked Helper
When you open the Exclude tab of the Fellow Collaborators sheet, highlight / select the cells of the “Profiles” column (only) you wish to add and copy (ctrl+C). Open your Chrome browser and LinkedIn with LinkedHelper and select “Collect, Select & Invite 2nd & 3rd contacts” from the options menu as shown in the screenshot below:

In most cases, you will be collecting profiles from your Boolean Search and storing them in your LinkedHelper “Default_List”, however, if you are using another list (that you have created using CREATE NEW then choose that list. Select whichever list is appropriate to exclude the profiles from (you can add to multiple).

When you have selected the list, left-click the “View Collected” option as shown in the following screenshot; even if you haven’t collected anything into this list yet.

Now select the “Excluded” tab at the top of the new screen, as shown in the following screenshot:

and left-click the “Upload Profile URLs” option as shown in the following screenshot:

When you have done that simply paste (ctrl+P) the profiles you copied from the Fellow Collaborators, Exclude list into the text box as shown below.

Finally, click “Close” as shown in the following screenshot, and you will return to your Linkedin Page.

Important Notes
- When you paste, it will include the column heading “Profiles” but Linked Helper will automatically ignore this. It will also ignore all the blank rows pasted that you copied, so all you have to do is literally copy and paste!
- In some cases, you will already have a list of profiles that you have already added to the Linked Helper excluded list. No problem – Linked Helper will nicely combine the new list you have just pasted with existing exclusions
- When you run a new collection process from your Boolean search, those that you have already added to your excluded list will not be collected from LinkedIn; they will simply be ignored.
- If you have already collected a profile and then add this to the excluded list (by way of this CSV upload), Linked Helper will not send an invitation to connect to this person, even though their profile is in the “Inviting Queue”. It will simply skip it and move onto the next.
Note: Manually excluding profiles that you have already collected is very good practice as it helps to improve the quality of your connections. For example, if you have collected many students, the connections of those students tend to include other students and you may not want that! Manually scanning your collected list also gives you ideas about how you can automatically exclude people with a better boolean search
Please – Regularly upload the Excluded List
Other Collaborators will be continually adding names to the “Exclude” list in Fellow Collaborators. So it would be great if you could regularly update the Excluded list:
Consider setting a calendar invite to remind yourself to upload the Excluded list and also remove LinkedIn pending invites every 2 weeks.
Note that you can also set an email notification with calendar invites so that you will get an email to remind you to complete these tasks. They won’t take long – it’s really fast once you get the hang of it.
Coaches
When starting someone new on the NBS, make a point of helping them add the current excluded list to their Linkedin Helper to immediately minimise the chance of bombarding anyone who is on the excluded list. Make sure you and the builders you are coaching follow this process of adding and updating their and your exclude list regularly.
That it!