There is a lot to be said for making the right approach
Overnight, I’ve accumulated 10 (count them) LinkedIn requests.
Clearly, I’m very desirable. 😉
But let’s get serious. Out of the ten people requesting to be linked, I have never met and don’t know 8 of them, I know OF one of them through sport (only by name, never met him) and one was a real estate agent who didn’t get the job of selling our house in Sydney nearly three years ago.
And, out of those ten people I don’t know, I got this message from 9 of them.
Now, I don’t know about you, but my personal view on people I don’t know on LinkedIn is that if you can’t take the time to introduce yourself a little more than the cursory LinkedIN provided message, then I’m going to assume you’re trying to sell me something.
And I’m just not keen on that.
If LinkedIN is the “World’s largest professional network” it seems such a shame that the most professional approach a person might make towards a new contact is a form letter that is only one sentence long.
Now, I’m not against “linking up” with people I don’t know yet. What’s that old saying “strangers are only friends we haven’t met yet” (don’t totally agree, but that’s another topic altogether) but the gist is OK. There may well be people who are interesting enough and have some mutually beneficial reason to be “linked” – and in fact, may even be a sales person for a product or service I don’t know I need yet – but there’s a pretty good chance if that is going to happen, I’m going to want a little more of an introduction than “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn”.
Imagine being in a business networking meeting and you get to the part where you have tea or coffee at the end and do the “networking” part. Now imagine walking up to someone and saying “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” … and the response is???
My response would be to stare and wonder whether I’d missed something. You know – the niceties, the courtesies, the introduction . Who are you? (Really.) What do you represent? Are you interested in me, or just in what you can sell me?
Meeting in an online ‘networking’ environment shouldn’t really be any different. If you’re linking up with someone you’ve met before, remind them of where you’ve met and exchange some pleasantries. If you’re linking up with someone you haven’t met, let them know something about yourself and show that you are interested in them as well (though not in a creepy stalker like way, that probably won’t go over too well either).
If you want to be part of my “most professional network” this is pretty important, but I also think that regardless of who you want to “friend” and on what network, a personal approach will go a long way. Although we are in a world of online networks which may seem disconnected, more and more it seems that in work and business who we want to work with is based on having a strong connection to people. It’s important to start out on the right foot.
And now I’m off to reply to the ONE person who took the right approach and wrote a personal introduction. My apologies to you David, for taking so long to get around to it. Busy, busy…
Onwards and upwards,
Heather x