Each of us has probably sent a social media invite on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn that we regretted sending. Ever wish you never sent that Facebook Friend request? Or have you ever sent a LinkedIn invitation you didn’t mean to send?

When people first start using these sites, they often send out invites by mistake. Even experienced users have done this. Sadly, LinkedIn especially encourages its users to send out invites to large number of people and makes it easy to do so in error.

Luckily there are ways to remove these inadvertently sent invites and requests. And for those invites and requests you did mean to send and haven’t been accepted, I have some tips for how to follow up on these.

 

Removing a Facebook Friend Request

• Go to your personal timeline, often called your personal page.

• Click on the Friends tab.

• Click on Friend Requests.

• Just under the words Respond to Friend Requests, you will see the words View Sent Requests. Click here.

• Now you see all the folks you have friended on Facebook.

• To cancel a request, hover over the button that says Friend Request Sent and click on Cancel Request.

• For those you think might have just missed your request, you can send an email. Or try sending a message through Facebook telling them you friended them. You can message people via Facebook even if you aren’t connected with them.

• It could be that some people simply don’t want to accept your request, and you just need to live with that.

 

 

Removing a LinkedIn Connection Request

• Click on the silhouette icon.

• At the top right of the screen, you will see two silhouettes. Click on the arrow to the right and then click on Sent Invitations.

• You can remove more than one invite at a time. Find a date when you sent a lot of invites you didn’t mean to send. Click on the word Select (and the number of invites you sent).

• Then click on the blue Cancel Requests button at the top right.

• Finally, click on Continue.

• You can also remove selected invites over many different days in one fell swoop. Just click on the circle to the left of the person’s name or email address. When have selected all the invites you want to remove, click on the blue Cancel Requests button. Then click Continue.

• For those people who you think just missed seeing your request, reach out to them. Email or even call them to let them know that you had hoped to connect with them on LinkedIn. Suggest that they look for your invite in their pending invites. Or give them the LinkedIn address you have associated with your account, and ask them to invite you.

• Keep in mind that there will be people who simply don’t want to connect with you on LinkedIn, even if you follow up in this manner

 

 

What About You?

Have you ever wished you hadn’t friended someone on Facebook or invited someone to connect on LinkedIn? Has someone reached out to you letting you know they tried to friend you on Facebook or sent you a LinkedIn invite? How have you handled it when you’d prefer not to accept those? Just wondering what readers experience has been with this matter.

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 45 and up, become more effective using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter. She provides social media tutoring and training to business owners, business development professionals, authors, speakers, coaches, business consultants, job seekers, and many others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.