Why Connecting on LinkedIn Can Lose You Business
It's alarming just how un-social media aware and un-self-aware too many business people are when it comes to connecting on LinkedIn – and it's losing them business and other opportunities.
I'm getting an increasing number of impersonal standard issue connection requests from people I don't know who claim to be a "friend" or that we "have done business together" even though neither are true.
It comes across, all you Lame Linkers out there, as if you just can't be bothered to take even a small amount of time to write a short personal note to someone you want to be connected to.
In fact, I always have this vision of a joyless soul sitting at their computer just trawling for scores or even hundreds of people who, like me, have a lot of connections, in the hope that they will introduce them to a whole myriad of opportunities – just by sending the badly presented standard LinkedIn connection request.
Listen, Lame Linkers! This is like emailing out the same Valentine's Day card to the many objects of your dreary desires, even though they don't know you and, until they received your communication, wish it had stayed that way, and saying:
"to whom it may concern- happy valentines day."
Done like this, you'll remain unloved and undesired. And it's the same with LinkedIn. This is your chance to make a great first impression on someone who might be a great connection. And yet you give them the impression they're probably one of many and that you have no real interest in getting to know them, only in getting to know what you can get out of them that will benefit you.
Out of goodwill, when I receive these limp links on LinkedIn I write back and ask them how we know each other. Some never reply, which says a lot about them. I then press the Ignore button. But some write back and, to their credit, and often with a sense of tacit admission of their inappropriate initial laziness, give a variety of reasons for us connecting. If they're any good I connect. In fact, some have proved to be really helpful and interactive connections and that's great.
But then today I got this reply from a Lame Linker after I asked how we knew each other:
"i think we are connected via our contacts rather than in person ?"
You don't say, Sherlock!
Bad grammar and an indifferent tone. How not to communicate in business. Why would I or, for that matter, any of my contacts, want to bother with someone like this.
It says a lot about him, his businesses and his brand – and they're not flattering things.
So, for him, as well as those other lazy Limp Linkers, when first impressions are so important, they crash and burn so unnecessarily. And that's why connecting on LinkedIn has been bad for their business.
I'm getting an increasing number of impersonal standard issue connection requests from people I don't know who claim to be a "friend" or that we "have done business together" even though neither are true.
It comes across, all you Lame Linkers out there, as if you just can't be bothered to take even a small amount of time to write a short personal note to someone you want to be connected to.
In fact, I always have this vision of a joyless soul sitting at their computer just trawling for scores or even hundreds of people who, like me, have a lot of connections, in the hope that they will introduce them to a whole myriad of opportunities – just by sending the badly presented standard LinkedIn connection request.
Listen, Lame Linkers! This is like emailing out the same Valentine's Day card to the many objects of your dreary desires, even though they don't know you and, until they received your communication, wish it had stayed that way, and saying:
"to whom it may concern- happy valentines day."
Done like this, you'll remain unloved and undesired. And it's the same with LinkedIn. This is your chance to make a great first impression on someone who might be a great connection. And yet you give them the impression they're probably one of many and that you have no real interest in getting to know them, only in getting to know what you can get out of them that will benefit you.
Out of goodwill, when I receive these limp links on LinkedIn I write back and ask them how we know each other. Some never reply, which says a lot about them. I then press the Ignore button. But some write back and, to their credit, and often with a sense of tacit admission of their inappropriate initial laziness, give a variety of reasons for us connecting. If they're any good I connect. In fact, some have proved to be really helpful and interactive connections and that's great.
But then today I got this reply from a Lame Linker after I asked how we knew each other:
"i think we are connected via our contacts rather than in person ?"
You don't say, Sherlock!
Bad grammar and an indifferent tone. How not to communicate in business. Why would I or, for that matter, any of my contacts, want to bother with someone like this.
It says a lot about him, his businesses and his brand – and they're not flattering things.
So, for him, as well as those other lazy Limp Linkers, when first impressions are so important, they crash and burn so unnecessarily. And that's why connecting on LinkedIn has been bad for their business.
posted: 9 Nov 11