LinkedIn invitations and connections are the heart and soul of LinkedIn.
Every LinkedIn network grows, contracts, or remains unchanged. Which of these scenarios are right for your business?
You’ll undoubtedly want to include LinkedIn as a key player in your marketing plan. Just as today’s professionals can’t avoid LinkedIn in their job search, you may no longer be able to ignore LinkedIn for the continued growth of your business.
Much of what happens on LinkedIn starts with invitations. Invitations are how connections are made – and launch the path for future clients. You could keep your network size at 50, 100, or even 500. But how many leads and clients will that generate for you? Will you get more prospects from a network that’s 500 strong or 5,000 strong?
Regardless of the size you decide, let’s focus on the best practices for sending and receiving LinkedIn invitations.
LinkedIn Hedges You Against The Odds
Because email deliverability continues to dwindle, you MUST have more than one way to connect with prospects and clients. This means messaging people using other communication channels, such as LinkedIn messaging. Broad messaging is available to those with paid LinkedIn accounts and 1st-degree connections.
This means do yourself a favor and connect with EVERY. SINGLE. CLIENT. YOU’VE. EVER. WORKED. WITH.
Create some sort of reminder system to help with new clients. A CRM (customer software) or e-commerce system can provide a simple “tickler system” that reminds you to connect with those who recently purchase. Staying in front of your customers is the goal. You want to be easily accessible. You want to show up in their search results, feeds, etc.
Only customers? Nope, think bigger. Think prospects, recruiters, HR managers, and more. Connect with folks you want within your inner circle to which you can easily communicate or collaborate.
You’re natively allowed 3,000 connection requests, although you can petition LinkedIn for more. Of course, you can also ask folks to send you a connection request.
PRO TIP: Ask new clients to send you a LinkedIn connection request after they make a purchase. This is a great time-saver for you – and saves you from using one of your 3K invitations.
Personalizing Invitations
Being personal gets more results. At least that’s what LinkedIn claims.
You can expect a higher acceptance rate by adding a personalized note to your invitations.
For example, when you see someone who’s viewed your profile, you could send an invite and say something like:
Hey there, Jim! I noticed you viewed my LinkedIn page a couple of days back. I’d like to add you to my LinkedIn network, if that’s okay. If not, that’s okay too. Curiously, did you pop by my profile because you need help with your resume? I noticed from your LinkedIn page that you left J&S Software a couple of months ago.
Unemployment is never fun … and can get very frustrating when you feel your “job search wheels” are just spinning and not gaining traction.
Be sure to give me a shout if I can help with that.
Whenever possible, use some personal details in your LinkedIn invitations.
Be friendly.
Be approachable.
Be likable.
That can significantly affect whether your invitations to connect are accepted or declined.
Accepting Inbound Invites
LinkedIn invitations are a two-way street, so yes, people can invite you to connect.
As we recommended above, ask yourself a few questions to help determine the viability of connecting with each person.
Does the profile from the invitee look valid?
Can I help this person if called upon?
More importantly, do this:
Pay attention to inbound LinkedIn invitations because some are “hand-raisers” and could become future clients. Hand-raisers are people who know they need your resume writing services and sent you a LinkedIn request. But, the demands of daily life have taken over, and they FORGET or IGNORE the reason they opted to connect with you in the first place.
Or, heck, they may have talked themselves out of needing you. Right?
For hand-raisers, you’ll want to immediately send a message introducing yourself to help spark up a conversation:
Hey there, Jim. I appreciate you for inviting me to join your LinkedIn network. I’ve worked with many professionals in R&D over the years, so if you ever need help with your resume or an upcoming job search, let me know.
I’d be happy to do a complimentary resume review for you should you need one.
Regards,
Teena
Offering a complimentary resume review is a great conversation starter.
PROCEED WITH CAUTION
Like any other network-building activity, be selective about who you accept into your network. For example, you may want to use this list of questions to prequalify individuals before accepting their request:
- Does this person look real*; e.g. legit photo, work history?
- Would this person be an ideal customer for me?
- Can I help this person when the time comes?
- Will I be an asset to this person and/or them to me?
*Some speculate that ~20% of new LinkedIn profiles get created by spammers. Spammers try to “game the LinkedIn system” by creating fake LinkedIn accounts/profiles. Avoid connecting with anyone that doesn’t appear human/legit. 🙂
