LinkedIn Etiquette
I’m an old-fashioned girl. Because of this, I try to only “LinkIn” to people I actually know.
My philosophy is grounded in the spirit of LinkedIn which is all about being a network of trusted connections. How can I trust a connection if I don’t know them? And why would I unleash a stranger on the network that I have carefully built?
When someone I don’t know (or barely know) invites me to LinkIn with them, I tell them about my old-fashioned ways. And then I always say that I would be happy to sit down with them over coffee (or by phone if they’re not in the area) to get to know each other better. After which I’d be happy to connect on LinkedIn.
I typically get a very positive response from people, and this approach has worked well for me.
Recently, however, I was involved in an exchange that was a terrific (and funny) example of what I try not to do with LinkedIn. This is a verbatim email exchange between me and someone I had talked with for maybe 5 minutes at an event. Let’s call the person “Mr. X.” Notice that Mr. X does not use my name in the salutation because this was a mass email sent to everyone he met at the event:
INITIAL EMAIL FROM MR X
Hello,
We met at the ___ workshop and I would welcome a LinkedIN connection. If interested, please request a connection using my email MR X EMAIL ADDRESS LINK.
CANNED MR X SIGNATURE LINE
MY RESPONSE TO MR X:
Hi Mr. X – It was so nice to meet you at the ___ workshop! I enjoyed our brief conversation and would enjoy sitting down to get to know each other a little better. If you don’t mind, I’m a little old fashioned and would prefer to wait to LinkIn until after we have that more in-depth conversation.
Best,
Susan
MR. X’S RESPONSE:
Hi,
Love to sit down, but can’t really commit to anything soon. I’m in the midst of a potential startup and expect to be pulling things together over the next 2-3 weeks.
Thanks
CANNED MR X SIGNATURE LINE
Needless to say, I am not expecting to hear back from Mr. X anytime soon. I would love to hear what you think and if you would have handled this differently!
You are certainly polite! I’m not sure I’d even have responded to Mr. X’s mass initial email. Do you really want to sit down and get to know someone who sent a blanket mass email like that out? Maybe there was another compelling business reason to do so.
I’d also suggest that you aren’t “old fashioned” to want to get to know people before linking. You are prudent, personable, smart. It is wise and savvy, not old fashioned, to want to make genuine connections.
Comment by Cheryl McP. — Friday, May 20, 2011 @ 11:27 am
Great point! I had just figured I’d see if it could be salvaged. Best of all, I got a great blog subject out if it if nothing else!
Comment by admin — Sunday, May 22, 2011 @ 9:35 pm
[...] LinkedIn Etiquette Click to Subscribe! a2a_linkname="Argentum Strategy Blog";a2a_linkurl="http://www.argentumstrategy.com/blog";a2a_prioritize="blogger_post","delicious","facebook","google_bookmarks","newstrust","stumbleupon","twitter","yahoo_mail","reddit","linkedin","hotmail","gmail","digg","aol_mail"; 4.3 Things I Learned At LinkedIn’s Marketing Symposium Monday, April 9, 2012 0 Comments – General Marketing [...]
Pingback by 4.3 Things I Learned At LinkedIn’s Marketing Symposium | Argentum Blog — Monday, April 9, 2012 @ 11:03 am