I think the O/P is just doing it wrong. I have a 100% complete profile on my LinkedIn and I have 770 connections, but I don't get spam, I do get the occasional

I think the O/P is just doing it wrong. I have a 100% complete profile on my LinkedIn and I have 770 connections, but I don't get spam, I do get the occasional recruiter or app development company wanting to sell me their services, but not so much that I would notice. But I am not in marketing, I am just a senior R&D guy. I have that many connections because I go out, meet people and remember to add them to my LinkedIn connections, plus I do accept 'random' connections from people who have mutual business interests with me (but not just anyone). The first thing to note is it isn't a social network like facebook, it is a business meeting place. It isn't just a recruitment tool it is a place to promote yourself and your organisation in a B2B context. I know some programmers who sit in their cubicle and have no interest in promoting themselves, fair enough, but I find it a valuable tool for meeting my peers. If I want to contact someone in another company then I can see who of my connections is linked to that organisation. If I need to keep track of where one of my contacts is then LinkedIn is useful for seeing job movements. I even connect to those dreaded recruiters, but only the ones I find relevant and the first time they offer me something offensively irrelevant I shoot them down quickly. Overall you get out what you put in to LinkedIn. It hasn't made me rich, but I am sure I get value from the time I put in.