LinkedIn Invitations: Tell Me Why We Should Connect

Career coach Barbara Safani of Career Solvers tackles the art of the LinkedIn invitation in her terrific post: Make Your LinkedIn Invitations Work For You.

She proposes savvy alternatives to the standard "Since you are a person I trust..." default message that LinkedIn generates. I wish LinkedIn would replace that with "[please type your own message here, doofus]" to give people the hint that they need to do something more than click the "Send Invitation" button.

It really doesn't take much time to craft a personal message, yet more than 90% of the invitations I get stick with the default. What that says to me is that the person either didn't know how to change the message or didn't care to change the message. How does this lack of effort reflect on them and their willingness to invest in building a real relationship with me? Not well. 

Too busy? Well I'm busy too. Why should I bother to click the invitation link, log into my LinkedIn account, read your profile and decide whether or not to accept, when it's faster for me to just hit the delete key?

I always personalize my invitations, both on LinkedIn and on Facebook, even when sending them to people I know. I take the time to tweak the default message, even if just to add "Hope you're well!" at the end. Now, thanks to Barbara, I have some great templates to follow when reaching out to brand new connections.

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Comments

[Nigel Edelshain]

Liz,

Absolutely always personalize the intro. It shows you care about the person.

Receiving the standard message seems to say "I don't care about you enough to spend 3 minutes writing you a real note". Not a good start to a relationship.

Nigel

[Gregory Burrus]

Funny being in the internet technology support business, I always wonder what is the best way to send and respond since Linkedin is a great networking tool.
Thanks for posting the short but true article as it will help me help my customers use these tools better. Great advice.
Greg

[Walter Akana]

Excellent advice, Liz! In coaching people or doing seminars that focus on networking, I frequently make the point that a big part of success is giving and sharing to build relationship. So, what better way to start a giving/sharing relationship than with a personalized invitation to connect? Taking the time to do so is like planting seeds of caring and thoughtfulness that will help the new relationship blossom.

[Barbara Safani]

Liz,

Thanks for the shout out! I also like it when people that I don't know who decide to follow me on Twitter send me a person to person tweet to introduce themselves. It really helps build the connection with my readers.

[Randy Belham]

I have been networking on facebook for some time now and I have always requested friends with a certain note that helped them remember how we met. It makes the connection all that much stronger. I am new to this blog and I think you are doing a great job. Too bad I do not live in NYC to go see you speak!