Why You’re Failing On LinkedIn

For professionals, LinkedIn can be an effective tool for networking, making valuable connections and sourcing new opportunities. But lately I’ve been noticing a trend, and it’s become a pet peeve of mine. Because of it, I can’t stress this enough: it’s imperative that you view a new connection’s profile before sending them a sales pitch message. Every time. No matter what. 

Here is what keeps happening. I receive a new connection request from someone I don’t know. But because of their job title or the field they’re in, I’ll accept if I think it would be a mututally beneficial contact – that is the main drive for using LinkedIn, after all. Not long after I accept, I receive a long, drawn-out sales pitch in a private message. While this would be a slight annoyance on its own, the real problem is larger than that – these messages are attempting to sell me services that my own business offers.  

Trying to aggressively sell social media services to a social media marketer (or website design services to a website designer, etc.) is a glaring oversight. Beyond that, it’s a waste of time and a bit insulting. It shows that the person didn’t take a moment to even glance at the readily-available information about the contact they’re attempting to sell to, and simply copied and pasted a tired message to everyone and anyone. 

Tsk, tsk. That just bad social networking. Don’t we all know better by now? 

So keep this post in mind the next time you’re sourcing new connections on LinkedIn. Before you send your best elevator pitch to someone, take the time to look at their profile, learn what they do, and then personalize your message. Because common courtesy will always go a long way in network-building.

photo courtesy of ciao.com