Want to connect? Then tell me why!

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I am a LinkedIn connection tart. I do not feel that I am being judged for the company I keep so I don’t vet too much.

However, I am not going to accept your invitation to connect without hearing your reason behind it.

This may offend...

The reputation of recruiters who use LinkedIn is getting steadily worse, and on both sides of the fence.

I regularly hear complaints from people about blanket messages, group invasion and spam.

It’s worth looking at these two recent blog posts to hear some great advice for recruiters from Bill Boorman, Recruiters: Don’t Kill LinkedIn, and Glen Cathey, Do Recruiters Ruin LinkedIn?

Cartoon credit: CartoonsBySpud (with humourous intent)

 

However, I am specifically focusing today’s rant on invitations to connect.

Would you walk up to a stranger in the pub and say, ‘let’s connect?’ Ok, maybe some of my bolder readers would… (and I’d love to be there to see the reaction ;) ) but in reality it won’t get you very far. So why send blank invites?

While Twittering on the subject with Billie Graham, the Social Panda at Cranberry Panda, I heard this golden nugget:

It’s like a man asking you for your number… hang on you’re the one who’s interested in me, give me your number and I’ll decide if and when I want to call!

In fairness though, Billie did point out that the LinkedIn iPhone app does not allow you to tailor your invitation. This is handy if you don’t share a group and don’t want to use the friend or we’ve worked together option but it’s also poor form and won’t help your reputation.

 

 

Deciding I’d illustrate Billie’s point, I ventured into my iPhone app and scanned my “People You May Know”

I just had to pick Michael Wright, how could I resist connecting with an Opportunity Broker?

 

 

 

 

 

Figuring clicking the “plus person” symbol would not allow me to the tailor the invitation, I went into his profile but even pressing “invite to connect” does not give you the option to tailor your connection request. Hopefully, LinkedIn will change that one day…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pre experiment I sent Michael an inMail warning of the imminent arrival of my blank invite. This led to some lively emails and, as he is Head of Talent Acquisition at GroupM, it’s worth hearing his rule of thumb.

He says, ‘if:

  • I know the person and like them –> will definitely accept.
  • I know the person and feel neutral about them –> will probably accept.
  • It’s a blank invite from a recruiter in an agency, anywhere in the world –> will probably ignore
  • It’s a personalised invite from a recruiter in an agency –> will probably accept if they have made an effort.
  • If it’s a prospective candidate from a related industry –> will definitely accept, even if it’s blank and even if I don’t know the person.
  • If it’s someone from an unrelated industry just looking for a bigger network –> will ignore.
  • If it’s about winning an iPhone or related –> will report as spam.’

The morale of the story: use a computer and tailor your invitation to connect!

…and if per chance you haven’t, and your invitee takes the time to reply asking why you want to connect, be courteous and answer them.

12th August – Ooh, ooh I have just found out something that has embarrassed me! If you go via Contacts, to Connections, to People You May Know and hit Connect you will NOT receive the option to tailor your invite… I hope Michael forgives me!

 

Am I alone in my rant or do blank LinkedIn invitations annoy you too?

 

Yours Free: Social Media & Recruitment Golden Nuggets
Straight to you, roughly monthly. Choose from job search, hiring or both.

 

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This entry was posted in Candidate Experience, Human Resources, LinkedIn, Personal Brand, Recruitment Brand, Social Recruitment, Social Sourcing by Katrina Collier. Bookmark the permalink.

About Katrina Collier

I train, speak & write on the use of social media in recruitment and job search. My blog contains my musings (and an occasional rant) and I aim to empower and illuminate. Please add a comment or share an opinion, they're all gratefully received.
  • Billie G

    Katrina, Katrina, Katrina, THAT is the funniest cartoon I’ve seen in a while!
    Great post too by the way :) *slightly narcisstic comment*

  • winningimpression

    I hope I don’t offend anyone with the cartoon! It is definitely meant in humour and I cried laughing when I first saw it. Thanks for your input Billie.

  • http://twitter.com/ToriAtHead Tori Long

    Couldn’t agree more with this! It’s a major pet hate of mine when people send me a LinkedIn invite without personalising it first.

  • http://www.facebook.com/BillBoorman Bill Boorman

    Katrina,
    thanks for referencing my post, and I’m sorry to be disagreeing with you, but unfortunately this isn’t best advice. You would think it is, and I did, but tests show that you are least likely to get a connection invite accepted when you personalise the message. The standard invite gets the best response rate by far. I tested this to try and prove your point, and found the opposite. you can find the results at http://recruitingunblog.wordpress.com/2010/11/06/changing-face-of-linked-in-invites-in/
    Acceptance rates run at 23 out of 25 for the standard invite, and 7 out of 25 for a personalised one. I have run this test 3 times now and it is pretty much the same. The reasons for this is that the more you try to justify a connection invite, the more it is seen as a pitch. The options you have are either to keep your network small to only people you really know, or to be liberal with the connection invite or join groups and send the standard invite based on sharing a group. The latter gets the best results because you dont need to claim to be a friend or a former colleague to connect. Before I ran this test I would have agreed with you, unfortunately the best advice is to send out standard invites.
    Bill

  • winningimpression

    Hi Bill,

    Thank you for taking the time to add your comments. It’s great to hear your thoughts.

    Have you run your experiment since November 2010? The feedback I am receiving on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and offline, nearly 2 years on, is that there has been an increase in irritation at receiving invitations from recruitment agents that are not personalised in anyway at all. There are some great comments at the poll too http://linkd.in/Rpndaz

    Many have also said that there is nothing more irritating than going back to someone and asking why they wish to connect and being ignored…. I feel another post coming.

    Ironically, I have had 23 of my last 25 personalised invitations accepted and expect to see the 24th acceptance when John gets off the beach in Portugal and goes near a computer.

    However, like you, I am not an agent recruiter so our stats are not a good representation of the basis of my post. Maybe I need to hack a recruiters account?! ;) (Kidding!!!)

    I do agree with you re the group but, personally, I would still say something like “as we share a mutual interest and are in x group” or some such…

    Katrina

  • winningimpression

    Thanks Tori, I agree :)

  • http://twitter.com/kahargreaves Kerri-AnnHargreaves

    Despite Bill’s argument I agree with you Katrina, add a personal note, for not other reason than it is polite

  • Marcus

    Katrina you are totally right and there are a lot of people sharing your views on this subject, 2years is a long time in cyberspace and clearly things have moved on.

  • winningimpression

    Thank you for your input Marcus

  • winningimpression

    Thanks Kerri-Ann

  • http://twitter.com/BillBoorman Bill Boorman

    I last ran this test a month ago. I do it every 4 months to keep the results current and not much change. You need to be a bit more understanding or you are going to miss lots of potential good connections. Give people a break. if thet behave badly throw them out. you should try the test, then come back and say I know rather than I think. The results might just surprise you, and test is always better than guess.

  • winningimpression

    As previously mentioned Bill, I am not an agent recruiter so I do not feel my experimental results would be a true reflection.

    Bill, I know the readers of my blog understand the medium and are aware that my post is my thoughts on the matter based on the feedback I am hearing and I am confident that they can choose to take on or disregard my thoughts.

    I would welcome hearing from any agent recruiters who would like to participate in a LinkedIn invitation experiment.

  • sjp1966

    I have had a lot of people follow me in the past and they
    are generally from IT Recruitment companies. Some I have added, some I
    have not but even the ones I’ve added have made no effort to contact or
    converse with me which leads me to think that they are using it in order
    to find people I have connections to and harvest names.
    I would rather they send me a message. Again I do not choose the I don’t
    know option but I have started to ignore the requests or I fire off a
    message if I get the option to do so.

  • http://twitter.com/Russell_Premier Russell_Premier

    Neither. I get a lot of Connection Requests from suppliers and potential candidates, usually with the default LI ‘I’d like to connect’ message. This is neither polite or indeed good practice (especially from marketers) who should know how to engage with customers. If you’re looking for a job then send me a CV, if you have something to offer me then ping me a personalised message. I won’t ‘Don’t Know’ people but will ignore those requests.

  • winningimpression

    Thanks for your comment Russell. I agree, it’s common courtesy.

  • winningimpression

    Thanks Steve. It’s crazy to hear that people add you & then don’t want to talk to you, it makes no sense.

  • Marcus

    I’m sure the same cartoon exists for bankers, traffic wardens, estate agents etc, etc, I am sure no one will be offended. Looks like yours and other peoples views on this subject are riling someone though

  • winningimpression

    Indeed :)

  • Patrick Loman

    The random invites I receive get the “delete” button straight away when the
    linkrequest has no further explaination of who the person wanting to link is and
    why he/she wants to link with me.
    As a matter of fact I deleted two random invites just a couple of seconds ago.

    I must be terribly old-fashioned when I say
    that to me it’s normal to introduce yourself when you first meet someone or want
    to get to know someone and it’s considered kind of rude when you don’t…?

  • winningimpression

    Hi Patrick, thank you for your comment and I agree, it’s simple courtesy. Katrina

  • sjp1966

    I know, it has always baflfed me. As i say though, i think they want me to accept so they can either get more connections from me, or harvest names of senior people in order to try and get jobs from them.

  • winningimpression

    It does sound odd :(

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