Skip to content now.

LinkMe Up Scotty

Apr 15, 2010 / Human Resources / Trackback

So I received this mes­sage today in my LinkedIn account:

Hello. I am a fel­low open net­worker and I was won­der­ing if we could con­nect. I would really appre­ci­ate if you could send me an invi­ta­tion since I am run­ning out. By con­nect­ing with me you will gain almost a mil­lion 2nd and 3rd degree con­nec­tions. I also promise you that I won’t send you any spam.

I love LinkedIn — I’m all about help­ing oth­ers too and as a fel­low open net­worker here is the reply I sent. I fig­ured why just let that per­son see it when it could help others?

I appre­ci­ate your inter­est in becom­ing one of my LinkedIn con­tacts, and yes, I am a fel­low open net­worker. Please indulge me by allow­ing me to share an immensely more eti­quette pro­fi­cient and effec­tive way of engag­ing poten­tial contacts.

Promis­ing more con­tacts is not a hook… espe­cially for some­one who already has a lot of them. Espe­cially another recruiter. A good recruiter knows how to reach most anyone.

I would be happy to accept you as a con­tact but not on my own invi­ta­tion.. You’re ask­ing me to work, to send you an invite — I don’t know you or have rea­son to. Open net­worker means I accept invi­ta­tions not acept invi­ta­tions to send invitations..

If you would like to be my con­tact find out how to make that hap­pen through one of the 5 groups we are both mem­bers of or wait till next month when you’ll have more invi­ta­tions to send.

Please don’t take this the wrong way.. Con­sider it net­work­ing skill build­ing free advice.

Karla


Tags: , , , , ,



  • Pingback: uberVU - social comments

  • http://karlaporter.com/ Karla Porter

    Kim­berly — So far I haven’t received a response. You are wel­come to copy and paste next time you get one.

    Karen — I always try to take time to stop and smell the roses =)

  • http://www.resumeconfidential.ca/ Karen Siwak

    Bril­liant, Karla!

    It is a tes­ta­ment to your patience and pro­fes­sion­al­ism that you didn’t just delete the request, but made the effort to edu­cate some­body who is per­haps merely awk­ward in their social net­work­ing skills, and not really as boor­ish and self-serving as their mes­sage would lead one to believe. Well done!

  • http://twitter.com/Kimberly_Roden Kim­berly Roden

    Wow, I’ve got­ten these before Karla and you’re right… there is no value in con­nect­ing with indi­vid­u­als like this. Your response is golden!

  • Shen­nee

    Karla–
    This is a great tes­ta­ment on what NOT to do… I loved your response. You will have to keep us posted on this individual’s reply.
    Com­mu­ni­ca­tion is a two way street, and it should never be “work”

    • http://karlaporter.com/ Karla Porter

      Shen­nee — I have lit­tle expec­ta­tion of hear­ing from this per­son ever again because peo­ple like that are what I call con­tact col­lec­tors.. I am of no value to that indi­vid­ual because I require inter­ac­tion. But should I be sur­prised with a response I’ll be sure to post it =)


ADVERTISEMENT