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Tip of the Week: LinkedIn Invitations - Are You Committing My Pet Peeve?
Ever seen these words before?
"I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn."
If you are a LinkedIn user, I'm sure you have.
Why am I so sure? Because the majority of people using LinkedIn seem to use the default invitation when they send an invitation to a new contact.
The good news is it gets the point across. When you see this message in your email inbox or on LinkedIn you know the person wants to connect with you. Great!
The bad news is that the default invitation provides precious little information to the receiver.
You'll see:
- The person's name
- A headshot image (If they've posted one.)
- If you hover over the name, a mini-profile will pop up so you can get a sense of who the person is.
- If you click on the person's name, you are taken to the person's full profile.
If you know the person by name, you are golden. Seeing their name is likely to be enough to accept the invitation without another thought.
If you don't know the person, you are toast! In that moment, you have a couple of options - some more time-consuming than others.
- You can look for evidence in the invitation that you are members of the same LinkedIn group. That at least gives you a sense that their interests match yours.
- You can use their profile as your source of clues. How do I know this person? Where might I have met them? Where have our paths crossed? Why do they want to connect with me? Should I connect with them?
- You can reply to their invitation with a request for more information about how they know you and why they want to connect.
- You can trust the connection holds benefit for you and click on the Accept button.
- You can click Ignore and then the invitation will be archived. You can respond later or continue to ignore.
To Connect or Not to Connect
LinkedIn recommends that you only connect with those you know and trust. The reasoning is that you may be asked to connect members of your network with each other. If you don't know your connections well, you may not feel comfortable providing that introduction.
Others believe that having a broad network of contacts is beneficial. The more people you are connected to the larger your overall network.
It's up to you to determine how to balance quantity and quality.
Inviting People to Connect on LinkedIn - Best Practices
Personally I never use the Add Connections option where you enter an email address, click Send Invitations, and you are done. In this scenario you never get an opportunity to personalize the invitation that gets sent to your connections.
The People You May Know section is a great resource. Clicking on the Connect link will take you to a detailed menu you can use to create your invitation.
You can also find the person's profile page and click on Add "Sam" to your network using the link next to the right of their profile.
Begin by deleting the default message and then write a personalized note to your connection.
- If you know the person, make a quick comment to remind them of your connection. If you haven't spoken in a while ask them how they are, what they are doing these days, or make a comment about something you can see on their public profile.
- If you know the person from afar - you've seen them give a talk, you've read their book, you've heard them on the radio, you read their blog, you know them by reputation - introduce yourself. Spell out how you connected with the person or their work in the past. Offer a sentence or two about why you want to connect. Help the person connect the dots so they see value in connecting with you!
A Bit of Personal Perspective
As an author, speaker, site owner with a media presence, I'm thrilled to connect with people who are drawn to my work.
At the same time, keep in mind that you may know me, but I may not know you! My work reaches far more people than I know personally.
It's likely I won't recognize you from your photo (if you have one), your name, or your profile...Even if I have autographed a book for you, spoken with you after a talk, or you are a newsletter subscriber.
Show me you care about our connection by introducing yourself. You only have a couple of sentences to tell me something that brings you, your interests, and your goals to life for me. I'll be far more likely to hit Accept if I feel a connection between us--a shared interests, a shared connection, a shared event, a shared group, a shared goal.
I'm sure I'm not alone in this. If you are reaching out to others you know from afar, they will also appreciate knowing more about you than the standard default invitation provides.
Copyright © 2010 Transition Dynamics Enterprises, Inc.
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