Recently I received this invitation on LinkedIn from someone I’m following on Twitter, and she is kind enough to allow me to share.
From: Kate West
Date: 4/25/2009
Subject: Twitter
Hello Stephanie – I added you on Twitter – great info, thanks so much! A lot of things that are obvious, but we don’t always think about, right? Care to add me on this network as well? I’m under KateWestReviews on Twitter. That networking tool has proven so fascinating. First Facebook brought me high school (and grammar school) friends (and exes) and now Twitter connects me with people I wouldn’t have met otherwise but who turn out to be really interesting. I’m impressed with your resume – who says women can’t do numbers? Thanks again!
Kate West
Kate West Reviews
It really grabbed my attention for several reasons:
- Kate demonstrated that she had read my profile.
- She referenced that we’re already connected and how, and provided her Twitter ID so I would know exactly who she is without having to search.
- She shared several things about herself, including her sense of humor!
- She thanked me for the information I share on Twitter and complimented my LinkedIn profile.
I recently stated on Twitter that auto-anything doesn’t cut it anymore – including the default LinkedIn invitation.
To stand out, be memorable and intriguing to those you connect with via social media — just as you would in person. Following are a few of Dale Carnegie’s principles from his book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” that you may want to keep in mind the next time you invite someone to connect with you:
- Give honest and sincere appreciation.
- Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
- Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.
- Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.
{ 5 comments }
Stephanie, I get your point. LinkedIn is making it tough to do exactly what you suggest in this post. I’m not sure what is motivating them to take the personalization away but it definitely makes it impersonal. Today I sent an invitation to someone and I’lll use the DM feature from Twitter to let them know. I guess this will drive me away from LinkedIn to other SM sites in order to personalize my message or maybe find other options for professional networking. Thanks again for your insightful posts!!!
Marguerite
Hi Marguerite,
Thanks so much for reading and sharing your thoughts.
What you are doing is precisely what I’m writing a new blog post about as we speak!
I think many (most?) of us are feeling at least somewhat conflicted as to how we’ll react to LinkedIn’s latest blunder. Blunder is probably not a strong enough word but I’ll save the rest for my blog post.
Stephanie
Hi Stephanie,
This is Mario from LinkedIn. It’s a known bug that will be fixed shortly and users should be back to personalizing their invites very soon.
Hope that helps. Best, Mario.
http://twitter.com/linkedin
Thank you for bringing out the infamous “How to Win Friend’s and Influence People.” Great advice…. those generic invites normally get “archived” now for me because they come so often.
Um. I’d like to add you to my network on linked-in.
Yea, Stephanie. This seems so simple but most don’t get it. Would you walk up to someone you know / know of and say Hi I want to be your friend? NO. You would say Hi, we met last week at the ABC conference you spoke at. One of the best pieces of advice I have gotten from a trusted friend about social media is treat them like they are standing in front of you.
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