“I’d Like to Add You to My Professional Network on LinkedIn.”

The form letter for connecting on LinkedIn is one rather irritating thing about the otherwise great social network. It reads, “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”

The form letter reads a bit lazy and presumptuous if you think about it. It’s lazy because it simply takes a click and it is sent. It is presumptuous because the sender is assuming that the response will be positive even though there is no context for the request.

Ninety percent of the requests I receive are the LinkedIn form letter. . .which you can – and should – edit.

I have interviewed several senior executives about LinkedIn and without prompting, unanimously their pet peeve is. . .invitations with no explanation and no context on why the person wants to connect.

Not exactly a great first impression for you and your company.

If you want to make a great first impression, tell someone why you’d like to connect and make it a value proposition that works both ways. Even if you have met them before, if you are not one of their closer business associates – assuming they will remember you without prompting is a dangerous assumption.

Additionally, many of the form letter requests I get come from people with incomplete profiles, or profiles that tell me next to nothing about who the person is or what the company does.

Make sure to properly fill out all of the sections in your profile and edit the LinkedIn form letter before you send any more invitations.

Connecting Photo via Shutterstock

The post “I’d Like to Add You to My Professional Network on LinkedIn.” appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Source: Small Business Trends

“I’d Like to Add You to My Professional Network on LinkedIn.”