Wednesday LinkedOut Comic 12: Spare a Few Connections?
The concept to this comic just popped into my head one day and here I am months later trying to see how I can use it to make a point or share some wisdom.
Reading it now I liken the economically disadvantaged (want to be Politically correct in this day and age) person’s request to sending out an invitation using the canned LinkedIn invitation template.
“I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”
–Your name
If you use the above invitation to connect with another member you will be making a mistake 99.9% of the time. The only wiggle room might be if you know the person extremely well and they would connect regardless of what the invitation says.
I even customize these. My invitation to a good friend might say “I can’t believe that you haven’t had the sense of mind to connect to me yet. Once again I have to clean up your mistakes. You can hit the Accept button now”.
Of course knowing some of my friends they immediately hit the IDK button.
The canned invitation is simple. It’s fast. It’s convenient. It’s against the laws of the universe. LinkedIn should replace the copy with “Type your invitation message here”. That’s what I think.
All that from a simple comic. What do you think?
Tags: connecting, how to use linkedin, Invitations, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Mistakes, LinkedOut, sean nelson, Social Media
May 27th, 2009 at 7:32 am
Agree 100%. I always make the invitation personal with reason.
Thanks for your postings. I enjoy them.
May 27th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
In total agreement. Any invitations I send are personalized.
When I get the LinkedIn standard I “see” lazy and uncaring and someone just looking for contacts.
Dan
May 27th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Dan,
Thanks for the comment. I see this a lot with new people or those not really up to speed on LinkedIn. They see the simple invitation and don’t think to personalize it. Hopefully over time they catch on.
I also see it with some folks that have over 500 connections, and that’s where there should not be an excuse. A simple one line personalized invitation will reflect better than the one line canned text.
Sean
May 27th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Thanks for the comic relief! I still use the standard invite for situations where the other person just talked with me and is expecting the invitation. Many times I personalize it with a comment preceding the standard invitation.
May 27th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Thats part of the small percentage where you can use the standard invitation. The wording isn’t bad with a bit of personalization before it. Sounds like what you are doing.
Thanks for the comment.
Sean