Comments on: 3 of 4 LinkedIn invitations include this big mistake

By: Joan

Joan — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:40:04 +0000

There’s no reason why people shouldn’t feed their blog into LinkedIn.

Blogs are a great way to promote your expertise and on LinkedIn, especially, you should bowl over people with how much you know about your topic.

By: Lori Johnson

Lori Johnson — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:58:02 +0000

There are two things that make me wonder what a person was thinking. One is putting your email address or URL in the headline or having a boring headline. The second is having a boring profile. By that I mean, they don’t have anything interesting like a reading list or something that they keep updated like their blog.

By: Joan

Joan — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:47:43 +0000

Jim, were the “employment opportunities” actually opportunities for them to sell you something?

By: Joan

Joan — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:46:23 +0000

Nothing wrong with a template, Shel. It’s a time-saver.

By: norman

norman — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:59:25 +0000

What is the best book or resource to get a simplified, clear, orderly reference on the ABC’s of using LinkedIn only. It appears to me that there is an underlying assumption that people just intuitively understand the mechanics of the social media sites. The site owners don’t have a robust section for newbies or the uninformed. Simple and orderly would be the operative words.

P.S. I’m hoping that any referrals won’t be to an entire program to immerse oneself in.

I love Joan’s community and appreciate your input and suggestions.

Norman (long time fan of Joan’s and customer)

By: Alessandra

Alessandra — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:16:43 +0000

Some people ask me to connect, and then get offended if I ask if I know them or why they want to connect.

By: Crystal Thies

Crystal Thies — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:24:37 +0000

Joan,

In addition to them not knowing any better, I think it’s just sheer laziness. The one real weakness that LinkedIn has is that messaging system – no signatures or saved templates, or even to save drafts.

The best solution to the problem is to use the LinkedIn Outlook Toolbar, which allows you to invite people to connect directly out of Outlook and you can save multiple “invite” templates requiring you to add just a little personalization – if any!

I highly recommend it as a much quicker and simpler way to send invitations (and you also have a record of it in Outlook!).

Thanks so much for the reminder…it definitely needs to be repeated to everyone over and over:-)

Crystal Thies
Social Media Strategist & LinkedIn Consultant

By: Jim Horrell

Jim Horrell — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:19:08 +0000

I agree that not including a descriptive message is a mistake. How many people have received invites to connect with a message saying I have an employment opportunity for you, connect with me and I’ll share the details? Since I am currently seeking employment, I accept the invite, but I also think it is a bit awkward to get an invite like that.

Jim

By: Shel Horowitz - Ethical/Green Marketer

Shel Horowitz - Ethical/Green Marketer — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:50:26 +0000

This is true of other media, too. I always modify the standard message on LinkedIn, but amazed at how many generics from LI as well as Facebook I receive.

Oh, and one other thing I do: when someone friends me, I have a warm, friendly, resource-filled message I send back. yes it’s a template, but it has started some wonderful conversations.

I wish there was a way to do meaningful screening in Twitter. I actually wrote to Twitter founders Biz and Ev suggesting the new follower message give both the name and the screenname (the part within the parentheses)–much more informative about whose profile I should visit.

Shel Horowitz, primary author, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet

By: Joan

Joan — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:30:43 +0000

I think people use the generic invitation because they don’t know any better.