Do you personalise your LinkedIn Invitations?
I can still remember when LinkedIn was just starting. We’d get emails inviting us to join and think, “what the hell is this?”. Must have been around 2006/7. Eventually I gave in and signed up.
For much of the first five years, it was like a Football Sticker Album – it felt like people were not doing a great deal more than simply collecting Players. Over the past 2-3 years the functionality has gotten better, and it’s now a platform that I visit 2 or 3 times a day. I even read articles now and then!
But there’s one thing that still bugs me (there are others and I’ll talk about them another day, but this one’s a biggie) – the Invitations that people send when they want to connect.
Most people just seem to click the ‘Connect’ button, without any thought to personalising the message. Right now I have four Invitations from people I don’t know sitting in my Inbox. I have no context for their Invitations.
Its actually very easy to personalise the message. Most people use the App nowadays, so all you need to do is visit the person’s profile, where you’ll see three white dots at the top right of the page. Instead of pressing ‘Connect’, press those dots and then select ‘Personalise Invite’.
Hey Presto! You can now let me know why you think we should connect.
I remember being called out about this myself several years ago, and ever since then I’ve taken the time to personalise any Invitations that I send. It doesn’t take a lot of effort, but it makes a world of difference.
I’m interested to know what you do about these automated requests. Let me know in the comments below.
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This is so easy to do and really important. Connecting is often the start of a relationship and first impressions really do matter to those on the receiving end of an invitation. Regular users of LinkedIn are seeking value from connections and so need to understand from the outset where this lies.
Thanks for reading and commenting David. I don’t know why people don’t think about this!
Yeah – I feel the same about impersonal automated invitations.
The other day I was “invited” by LinkedIn to congratulate someone on a work anniversary. The usual “congrats…” popped up. But I took just one minute to personalise that message before sending it. When someone sends me a personalised message, it has much more meaning – I know some thought and effort has gone into it. So I was happy that my minute was well spent.
But there are those occasions when, using the app, I’ve sent the request/message before I’ve realised. At those moments I hope the recipient hasn’t read sensible blog posts like this one.