When you send an invite to someone to connect on LinkedIn, do you personalize your invite? Many people don’t take the time to do this. They simply click on the “Connect” button and send the generic invite of “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”

 

This approach can work just fine when the person getting the invite knows you pretty well. However, when the person you are inviting doesn’t know you that well or isn’t entirely sure who you are, there is a good chance they will ignore your invite.

Here are some tips for sending connection invites that will increase the chance that your invite will be accepted by the person receiving it.

 

Tips for Getting Your Invite to be Accepted

• Let the person know why you are asking them to connect with you and how you think you and that person could benefit from being connected.
• Reference how and when you met the person.
• If you are in one or more LinkedIn groups with the person, reference the group (or groups) in your personalized invite.
• Reference one or more shared connections on LinkedIn (you can find these by looking at the person’s connections and scrolling through the shared connections).
• Send your connection invites from a computer (rather than from a tablet or your smart phone) – as mobile devices only have the option of clicking on the “Connect” button.
• If you have the person’s email address, consider sending them an email letting them know you have sent them an invite to connect on LinkedIn. Many people don’t check into LinkedIn on a regular basis.

Tips Once Your Invite is Accepted

• Thank the person for accepting your invite – do this through LinkedIn or by sending a regular email.
• Do this in a timely manner by regularly checking your notifications section on LinkedIn.
• Consider having your notifications for invite acceptances also be sent to your email address in case you aren’t on LinkedIn on a regular basis.
• In your thank you note, suggest meeting or talking by phone to get to know each other better (if appropriate).
• Go to their LinkedIn profile and click on the word “Relationship” which is found right under their photo.
• Using the sections provided to you, make a note of how you met this person, assign them to a category of connections (such as clients, prospects, vendors, etc) via the tagging feature, and use the follow up feature to remind you when to reach out to this person again.

 

How About You?

How often do you personalize your invites to connect on LinkedIn? How do you respond to generic invites? Do you tend to accept them and then ask how you are connected with the person? Or do you ignore them?

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 50 and up, to become more comfortable using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter.

She works with business owners, nonprofit organizations, retired people, consultants, and many others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.