And why it usually doesn’t bother me — so much
One “complaint” I hear often regarding LinkedIn is that there is a lot of spam. And I’m not going to say that there isn’t, let’s face it, there’s a lot of spam EVERYWHERE. Here in the United States, it’s spring, and it’s storm season, and if you don’t monitor your incoming calls, you’ll be talking to a lot of roofers. “Do you need me to come check your roof after the storms?”
On Friday, I personally received about 20 direct messages on LinkedIn. Some where about business, some were introducing people I knew to other people I knew, and quite a few were “chatter” about the LinkedIn conference held in the U.K. on Thursday. You know, conversations, with humans.
And then there was that ONE message.
I’d received a connection request and noticed that the person had very few LinkedIn connections, but there was one common connection and the person was in middle Tennessee so I figured I’d accept the connection request. (I mean, hey maybe they need some help with LinkedIn.)
Within a few minutes I received a message:
Hi Mary , Hope your day’s going well.
Quick question: are you currently working with an __________? And do you feel your ________________________ are giving you ____________ each month?
SIGH!!! I’ve known you about 5 minutes and I’m getting a pitch.
So – there’s that — and I completely understand why people that do not have a solid group of valuable connections built up on LinkedIn would get frustrated.
This was where I possibly slightly over reacted.
I have a question for you
Have you ever thought about working with a LinkedIn consultant?
When I first got your connection request I looked at your profile and these are a few of the things that I noticed …
1) Your profile is somewhat filled out, but it’s not complete.
2) You haven’t created a post in 5 months.
3) You haven’t posted a comment in 1 month.
4) You have no recommendations.
5) You have very few connections.
I would highly suggest sharpening up your LinkedIn presence before sending a pitch immediately after connecting with someone.
You can let me know if you’re interested in finding out more.
LinkedIn is a platform where you can find amazing people, valuable business connections, and loyal customers, but it takes time, effort, and an active, consistent, and engaged presence.
Here’s a link to a YouTube video from a presentation I did with SCORE Nashville. It explains how to use many different parts of the LinkedIn profile.
A little more background – this message came through about 5pm on a Friday
On THURSDAY I was up and “attending” a conference (in the U.K.) on LinkedIn (and then went on to clean house for book club Thursday night and was active on Friday doing the work I didn’t do on Thursday because I was at the conference in the U.K.)
I was a bit tired — and sometimes when I’m tired I lack appropriate filters.
Admittedly, I could have taken a softer, more gentle approach.
On the other hand – if anyone had been listening to John Espirian at the first session at the LinkedIn conference, they would have had some GREAT IDEAS for DMs.
Stay tuned, I’ll be doing a DM workshop in June and yes I’ll be taking a few ideas from the presentation that John did, but I’ll also be putting my own spin on it.
My personal bottom line, I’m not going to let a few people that send irritating DMs keep me from building a business using LinkedIn. People that cold pitch aren’t worth too much free rent in my brain.