“If I show up at your door, chances are you did something to bring me there.” – Martin Blank
A couple years ago we wrote LinkedIn is not a video game. Why? Because we kept seeing LIONs (LinkedIn Open Networkers) and people with 5,000+ connections that simply didn’t get it. Ever hear the old adage of “quality vs. quantity?”
So when you connect with someone on LinkedIn…
…it literally screams at you:
Important: Only invite people you know well and who know you.
It’s the backbone of LinkedIn.
So when you attempt to connect with someone, you get the option of sending the pre-written text of “I’d like to connect with you on LinkedIn.” or editing it as you wish.
So why in the World do 99% of my connection requests come in as “I’d like to connect with you on LinkedIn”??
It would be no different if I walked up to you at a business networking event and said, “Here’s my card.” and walked away.
Really? That’s all you have? You can’t type something like “Bob, I am interested in learning more about what IT in the D is doing, would you be up for chatting over coffee sometime, or at least, connecting with me on LinkedIn?”
There, what did that take? 15 seconds?
Again, treat it as if you were meeting someone in person. “Hi, so what brings you out?” or something as simple as “What do you do?”
LinkedIn, in my opinion, has been watered down, simply because people are clamoring for connections instead of building a trusted network. Never once has someone contacted me saying, “We are #1 connection’s on LinkedIn, let’s do business!” (See how ridiculous that sounds??). So what is the point of collecting connections? Just to boast that you did? (See: high score on Joust).
I highly recommend meeting us at one of our meetups, but if not, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, just don’t write “I’d like to connect with you on LinkedIn.”
Thanks for listening. Now go read something.