When you first start out on linkedIn, LinkedIn will ask to access your email account to see who you have been in contact with that already has accounts on LinkedIn. These will form your first connections. Once you have this done, to connect with other people, you’ll need to send out invitations to connect. These are my 5 rules for sending out invitations to connect on LinkedIn.
Rule 1 – Make sure that you can send them an invitation to connect
When you click on the [Connect] button, LinkedIn asks you “How do you know..” that person and gives you a number of options:
Colleague – choose a company
Classmate – choose a school
We’ve done business together – choose a company
Friends
Groups – choose a group
Other – provide an email address
I don’t know…
If you have never met the person, then really you have 2 options: groups or other, where you have to provide an email address. Some people include their email address in their summary or additional information section for just this eventuality, but whether you can see it or not will depend on your degree of connectedness to the person and whether they have created a public profile.
Tip: If you are open to receiving connection requests from people that you don’t know, add an email address that people can use in your summary section as part of your call to action.
Rule 2 – Never send out the standard message
LinkedIn has set up a very basic message for people to use when sending out invitations to connect. This states “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” Please don’t use it.
Rule 3 – Include a salutation
One thing that LinkedIn’s standard message lacks is a salutation i.e. Dear…, Hi…, Hello…
LinkedIn is a business forum as so standard business rules apply.
Rule 4 – Include an appropriate message
If you know person well, then this can be informal, however, if you haven’t seen them for some time, jog their memory and remind them of how you met.
If you haven’t met the person before, let the person you want to connect know why they should connect with you. Some of the messages that I have used include:
- I noticed that you viewed my profile. Can I help you at all?
- I really enjoyed the book, article, blog post that you wrote. I would really love to connect with you.
- I met X and they suggested that you would be a really good person to talk about Y. Could we connect?
In my profile, under the Additional Information section, I provide the following advice for people looking to connect with me:
“I’m happy to connect with most people, but if we haven’t met, please don’t use the standard LinkedIn message. Tell me why you’d like to connect. If you’d like some help with your profile, then let me know. I can usually suggest a couple of quick changes.
Don’t forget you can use my e-mail address [email protected] to send requests to connect.”
Make it easy for people to connect with you.
Rule 5 – Include a closing statement
As in Rule 3, remember this is a business forum, so close your message with something like:
- Sincerely
- Regards
- Kind regards
and your name.
These rules may seem like common sense, but as always, it’s something that isn’t happening often enough and will affect whether someone will actually connect with you or not.
If you found this blog post helpful, then please let me know, and if you feel you would benefit from some help with your LinkedIn profile, then consider getting a full, systematic review of your profile or some one to one training and support. If you check out my LinkedIn profile, you get access to a number of free resources and vouchers to myUdemy courses.