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It amazes me what people do during the process of connecting with others. In this post I’m going to give you a powerful way to respond to any invitation to connect on or off LinkedIn.
First off NEVER respond with and “I DON’T KNOW” or IDK as it is known. There is one exception – that is if the person inviting you has be ignoring your requests to stop contacting them.
If you are on a networking site, punishing people for inviting you to connect, unless you have stated you don’t want any invitations, is simply wrong – even if they don’t know you, just archive the message (Proper invitations are never IDKed even when sent to someone that doesn’t know you. But that’s a different subject.)
Second, NEVER fail to respond with at least a thank you or some acknowledgement of the person’s invite. (See the better way below.)
Third, ALWAYS look at the other persons profile even if only for a minute. You will be surprised how often you find the most interesting pieces of gold in profiles of people you would never think of connecting with.
Personally, I like to go to there website as well. Why? To look for some way I could be of value. If nothing else I will learn who there customers are and maybe I can send them someone.
Fourth, send them a note that does the following.
- Thanks them for inviting you
- Offers to help them in any way. One way to do this is to tell them to look through your connections and see if there is anyone they would like to meet. Another would be to offer free advice in your area of expertise.
- Give them a specific value. In a previous blog post I discuss having free stuff to give away – this is where you use it. Since I have a bunch of great free LinkedIn stuff – my networking success kit – I offer that.
- Give them a valued connection. In my case I know a gal who is just a wiz at LinkedIn and always willing to connect and help anyone so I include her name, with her permission of course and she includes mine.
- Ask them how you can help – who would they like to connect with, what are they looking for in their life or business that you might be able to help them find?
- Finally, let them know it is alright to contact you, I even provide my email and phone in my message. I also let them know that they may give my name and email to anyone they know that would like to connect or feel I could be of value.
This is only the first step of building a great relationship with your network. However it is a very important one. First impressions last – make your first impression with you new connection a great one!!
Your comments on this post are more than welcome!
I would greatly appreciate any promotion of this blog you are willing to do, tell your friends, Tweet it or DIGG it – whatever. My goal is to help others be successful on LinkedIn.
I do my best to provide powerful and practical advice that will actually help others succeed and I seek to share that information with as many people as possible – your help in this effort is greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Hi Flyn,
Thanks for sharing your valuable thoughts and advice – much appreciated.
The depth & level of hands on “how to” advice you provide is akin to that on http://www.manager-tools.com – particularly their podcasts.
If you haven’t already discovered this brilliant resource, I’m sure you’ll find it of tremendous value!
Thanks again,
Damon McMahon
Great ideas. At a minimum, at least personalize your request or response by inserting their name above the canned text.
Flyn,
That was a very helpful article. Thank You
I’m very new to linkedIn and I’ve been tip-toeing around the site for the last few days trying to get an understand the culture of LinkedIn.
First impressions can make you or break you and your article will help me be in better rapport with this community.
Please let me know how I can be of service to you now or in the future.
Teri
Hi Flyn,
What a very simple, concise and quality article. Personally I think it would be great if it could be forwarded to all current and future LinkedIn members as a elementary guideline to follow.
Sincerely,
Robert Salmoni
Premier Web Solutions Australia
http://www.twitter.com/websitesguru (Web City)
Flyn,
Excellent suggestions. The message I get from reading your article, and I read it twice, is to be polite and treat people with respect. You are right, you may find real vaule by taking a little extra time to learn more about someone and what they do. And, I hope you will accept a friendly suggestion. Under your #3, you use the word “there” instead of “their”. As a technical writing editor in a previous life, I may be a little more likely to see those slight slips. Your comment about first impressions is critical and many people I work with judge our work by our writing. It is with respect to you that I submit this comment. Thank you for the time you are investing in your writing. I have learned from your experiences and I very much appreciate that.
Thanks for taking the time to write an apt post Titled:
The Right (Powerful) Way to Respond to a LinkedIn Invitation (Or in Any Networking Environment)
The approach you’ve outlined is cohesive and straight forward. The fact that you hit upon not just the mechanics, but some finesse, along with some tips to be more successful is very helpful. After all, though some people work together as a result of being in a social networking setting, there still is a process in the development of the relationship. Being very relational myself the steps seem quite natural and fitting as it would be if you were meeting in a social setting.
Will be bookmarking, twitting, and aggregating the link to your post. Great job!
Okay, I’m gonna be frank here, Flyn. No one I’ve LinkedIn with has replied with Steps 2 through 6 — and only a handful with Step 1. Perhaps because they think LinkedIn is all about them.
But when I receive invites (even from people I clearly do NOT know), I always review the person’s LinkedIn bio and website and/or blog, to determine if they’re just linking in with me to build their numbers or if they really feel we can bring value to each other.
If I do connect with them, I follow up with a personal message. I’ll now try to do more than just that basic nicety — based on your above tips.
One last thought: to those people who hit the IDK button because they’re lazy: SHAME ON YOU! It has happened to me — and I won’t forget it. Think I’d want to do biz with someone that arrogant?
Sheri.. I would agree that it is a good idea to investigate anyone that invites you to connect. However, I don’t believe that you should turn them down for any reason (except if they’re a jerk of course). The reason is you don’t really know what value they might bring. See my new post for a sample of what kind of unexpected things can happen. For a more detailed explanation of why you should connect see earlier post on the open networker debate.
Thanks so much Flyn for sharing this useful information with us, will pass it on others. First impression goes a long way and we need to be mindful of that in this era of social networking.
Question…what are your thoughts on quality vs. quantity on LinkedIn?
You need both — size equals visibility and exposure (the more that see you the better the chances an opportunity will find you), and quality equals power. Read the post called “The Open Networker’s Debate.”