They tell you to go online. You’re told that one in four job seekers found their favorite job through networking. You are told that “it’s all about who you know”.
LinkedIn is a big part of networking these days. It is a great platform to manage and grow your valuable contacts. But are you connecting on LinkedIn the WRONG way? Your LinkedIn invitations do not convert to connections. Are your LinkedIn requests being ignored?
Here are three reasons why people might be ignoring your LinkedIn connection requests, and what to do instead…
You don’t provide a personalized message in your LinkedIn invite
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If someone walks up to you on the street and says, “Hey, you don’t know me, but let’s be friends.” and left, will you welcome them with open arms? Well, maybe you would, but that behavior ranks pretty high on the Creep Meter for me.
Well, when you just send a generic LinkedIn invite to a stranger without explaining yourself, that’s basically what you’re doing. Introduce yourself and let them know why you want to connect. It really makes a big difference.
ADVICE: Go to the person’s LinkedIn profile and use the connect button there when you send your invitations. It will always allow you to write a personalized message.
You don’t have a professional photo (or worse, you don’t have a photo at all)
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This may sound superficial, but it’s true. If you have a profile picture, people are more likely to take your LinkedIn request seriously. If you have a professionally taken photo, your chances are even higher.
People want to know who is trying to contact them. Not only that, but if you don’t even have a LinkedIn photo, people may assume you don’t take your personal brand seriously.
Your title is terrible
Any of the following are similar to your current LinkedIn title?
- Are you using Search for Opportunities or Search for New Opportunities?
- You do not use proper capitalization, punctuation or grammar and/or have spelling errors.
- Your headline doesn’t accurately reflect your brand.
Stop it. Just stop. No one will take you seriously if you do any of the above.Check out this amazing post that shows you what to write in your LinkedIn subject line.
Once you improve your LinkedIn profile, you can take things to the next level and reach out to recruiters. Here are some tips on how.
By optimizing and updating your LinkedIn profile and personalizing your LinkedIn connection requests, you’ll find that fewer people will ignore your invitations to connect, and you’ll be successful in building your professional network.
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This article was originally published on an earlier date.
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