Repost: Personalize Your Invitations from LinkedIn

I'm reposting a post from May 31 of this year. Yeah, I know it's a bit soon, but there's a reason. I don't know if it's because of my increased visibility from bub.blicio.us, from public speaking, or from GCASTD, but in the last two weeks I've been slammed by LinkedIn invites. I don't know all the people who invited me but most of them just used the default invite. This tells me nothing about them - no contact information, no reference to where we met, nothing. So I thought it might be time to re-post this. I figure I'll post it every two months if I have to.

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Because I have started doing a lot more speaking and more public blogging, I get a lot more LinkedIn invites.In many cases, these folks feel they have a personal connection and don't realize that I have a heck of a time remembering names without a memory jog.

Would you send out an invitation to a party without thinking through the invitation and considering the wording? Probably not. I wish more people applied that same logic to LinkedIn invites.

Michelle:

I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

- John Doe

Now, I probably do want to connect with John Doe. He's probably a great guy and might even have some great contacts. But because I need a memory jog sometimes, I'm not sure who he is. I also question how seriously he takes connecting because he didn't bother to personalize his LinkedIn invite and just sent the default.

Now, I admit to having done this myself once or twice. I get lazy and send the default invite, especially when I'm connecting with good friends. But if you're reaching out to someone you met via Twitter, briefly at a conference, or someone who you know because of their blog, go ahead and personalize your invite. Not only will it jog your connection's memory, it will make you stand out a little more as well.

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Find Michelle Lentz here at Write Technology, on bub.blicio.us, on Twitter, or Pownce.