I love LinkedIn, it helps me to expand my knowledge, seek answers to questions, help other people and to stay in touch with people I know.
I’ve written an eBook – How to Use LinkedIn to Find A New Job, which is regularly updated and now in it’s 18th edition, and everyone who buys it gets the updates.
The eBook includes a section on connecting with others.
DON’T BE SNEAKY
I regularly get people requesting to connect with me through saying they are a friend, or saying that we have worked together at XXXX company, the company they work at.
Why do they do this? I’m very easy to find online and they could email me. Or they could create a personal request.
When I get people who are untruthful I don’t want to connect with them. I used to send a message back asking them why they want to connect but now I just delete the request. Others may do the same for you, and they may click on the ‘I don’t know this person’ option, get too many of those and you will only be able to request to connect with people when you know their email address.
Here’s an excerpt from my eBook:
5.3 Personalising the connection
Explain who you are and why you are getting in touch.
Do not use the default message to everyone, take the time to personalise it and ideally to personalise it on an individual basis with a short message perhaps including how you know somebody. This is to people you do know but maybe have not been in touch with for a while.
How to connect with people you don’t know
Make a personal connection, you might have to choose the friend option but make it clear why you want to connect. It can help if you refer to something you have in common such as a mutual friend or interest, or went to the same university. If they accept your connection follow up by sending them something that would be helpful for them, perhaps an article, and only after this ask for help. (This is if you are using LinkedIn as part of your job search strategy).
Don’t seek to connect with people you don’t know. They could choose to click on the ‘I don’t know’ button or ‘Report as spam’ link. This means that you will then be asked to enter an email address when you try and connect with people in the future.
I’m never sure if it is laziness or a lack of knowledge that makes people use LinkedIn incorrectly.
Connecting is just one aspect of LinkedIn , you can learn much more using the LinkedIn eBook, read more here.
I’d love to know your thoughts, what do you do about generic LinkedIn requests?
