As so much in social media is trial and error, I was happy to receive some advice from a Career Enlightenment subscriber, Hugh Knight.
We’ve all experienced the frustration of sending out a LinkedIn connection invitation and getting ignored. Even though I consider this bad LinkedIn etiquette, people are busy or uninitiated. Hugh has found a great process for getting around this problem.
Step 1: Search for Related People
No, I don’t mean relatives. I mean people related to your field of interest. Use LinkedIn’s people search with targeted Keywords. In Hugh’s example, he searched for people with the word “Sharepoint” in their profile.
Step 2: Be Totally Transparent
Too many people simply send off a LinkedIn invitation without personalizing it. I know some folks who categorically refuse to accept un-customized invitations.
When you send your invitation, LinkedIn asks you how you know this person. Pick “friend,” even if you don’t know them.
Hugh highly recommends a 100% transparency policy when reaching out. These new connections have very little knowledge of you except for what you have in your note. So use the following phrase to make it clear why you want to connect.
I am new to the area and am wanting to build my network.
Step 3: Begin on Common Ground
If you notice anything in common with this person, be sure to mention it right away.
If you have a mutual connection, say “We have a mutual friend in (someone’s name).”
If you have a school in common, or anything else, mention it.
Bonus Tip: Leverage Your New Connection
When they accept your invite and it shows in your e-mail. Follow up with this easy text:
Thank you so much for accepting my LinkedIn Profile invite. I would be interested in obtaining any suggestions or contacts that you think would be in line with my background and work experience.
Notice these two things with this note:
A. Beginning and ending thank you
B. Asking for suggestions or contacts
Try this approach the next time you invite someone to your LinkedIn network, and tell me how it works for you!
Joshua Waldman helps frustrated job seekers leverage social media to find work FAST! He is the founder of CareerEnlightenment.com and the author of the new book, “Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies.” Sign-up for his newsletter today and get access to his exclusive training videos for FREE.
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Joshua — yes, I wholeheartedly agree that LinkedIn invitations should be personalized. I think that there is a defect in how the LinkedIn invitation template is setup when you have the e-mail address of the person and want to invite them. I think that the LinkedIn developers might have assumed that, if you have someone’s e-mail address, then you necessarily know them and don’t need the option to personalize it. Not true!! I have been to networking meetings and have someone’s e-mail address and want to send them an invite and there is no box to check to say I’d like to personalize the invitation. I work around this by also sending them an e-mail to say what I would have said in my personal invitation (e.g. “enjoyed meeting you last night at x meeting…”). Do you have any advice on how to lobby LinkedIn to change this?
Seems weird to friend request (or I suppose network request) someone you don’t know. Base off other social network ettiquette, this is unacceptable. It would seem more reasonable that if you are really seeking a strangers assistance that you would just send them a message, without the friend request.
If I got a friend request and the person asked for help, it is unlikely that I would accept or respond. If someone sent me a message, and detailed some type of connection to me, the I would probably respond.
Something is just creepy or presumptuous about requesting strangers
Preach, Joshua!
When all of this social networking stuff was new, it was perfectly understandable to use the standard boilerplate invitation to connect especially with folks that you already knew. Although, I would still advocate the use of something personal whether reaching out to someone that you know very well or someone you want to get to know. Making it personal, makes the individual feel that you are truly interested in them thereby, getting a new connection off to a good start.
I am one of those individuals that you cite that does not accept an invitation that uses the standard invitation text and always personalizes the ones that I send out.
This is a great post and re-tweeted it to my Twitter network and posted it on my LinkedIn profile.
Keith, Thanks so much for your advocacy! I totally respect your policy on accepting/not-accepting invites. At least you have a policy. And I think others should take your lead.
-Joshua
Excellent
advice, Josh, particularly with respect to personalizing the invitation and
following up with a “Thank you.” I am
amazed how many people can’t be bothered to write more than “I want to add you
to my network.” It wouldn’t kill them to write something like “Hi [Josh] [Mr.
Waldman], I see from your LinkedIn profile that you are an expert on the use of
social media in a job search. Learning more about leveraging social media is
also an interest of mine. I would very much like to be part of your LinkedIn network.”
One suggestion, in case your readers are inclined to cut and paste your proposed
invitation verbatim: I would go with “. . . and want to build my network.” The locution
“I . . . am wanting to build my network,” though not technically incorrect, is
not idiomatic English. The invitee is
liable to think the clause “I am new to the area” means “I just landed from
Mars and we are still working out a few bugs in our spaceship’s universal
translator.”
Mark,
Great point. Indeed, however, I would LOVE to get an invitation from someone who DID just get here from Mars!
–J
Great advice! So many people don’t personalize their invites!
Thanks Justin. It’s true. Isn’t it worth a few minutes to write something nice for the chance to have a useful network…Glad you liked the post.