LinkedIn's Standard “I’d Like To Add You To My Professional Network”. No! Don't Do It!

By Sarah Fletcher - Social Media Magic

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Are you proactively using LinkedIn as part of your career path? Are you requesting or considering requesting recruiters and potential employers to connect with you?

The vast majority of LinkedIn invitations received don’t say where we met, why they want to connect or give any useful information. It is the standard LinkedIn template of:

“I’d like to add you to my professional network.”

Personally, being the recipient of a fair number of these invitations to connect from people I have never met (which by the way I don’t accept), my instant thought to this is always “Thanks that’s really nice but who are you and why should I?”


Make It Personal

Or invitations from people I have met, but maybe only once at an event I have spoken at, and don't remind me where and when and therefore get the same response! I do know I'm not the only one - I have read countless complaints from others across Social Media that they are experiencing exactly the same thing.

It is so frustrating when people can’t be bothered to personalise the message. Every person we train on LinkedIn is taken through this. Surely it is common courtesy to explain who you are and why you wish to connect if you have never met someone? Or are LinkedIn users so busy hitting the ‘Connect’ button to anyone and everyone in a bid to get the most connections that they don’t have time to write one?


Why?

If you are seeking a new challenge in your career and are genuinely interested in connecting on LinkedIn with recruiters and employers then it is polite and certainly proactive to take the time to compose a short, to-the-point message telling them why you wish to. This will increase the initial impact that you have, raise the positive responses to your invitations, open up opportunities for conversation and provide you with a greater number of connections who understand who you are and what you have to offer.


Follow Sarah Fletcher on @MushroomSouffle

 

 

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