LinkedIn are in the process of rolling out (to all members, not just Premium) a new messaging system, which is essentially a refreshed version of the current features, as well as the ability to send short, snappier messages to your contacts to replicate a ‘real-time’ conversation, similar to WhatsApp.
Over the summer I received dozens of invitations to connect from people I don’t know, the vast majority of whom didn’t take the time to personalise their message to me. In light of the changes which LinkedIn are making to their messaging features, I want to stress the importance of tailoring your outbound invitations to connect – it only takes an extra 10-20 seconds to write a short note explaining why you wish to connect with the individual. Even something as simple as ‘I see we have a number of mutual contacts in common’ is better than the standard wording. The non-personalisation of messages by people I don’t know is one of my pet peeves on LinkedIn – if I just connect with everyone who sends me an invitation then all I am doing is collecting names. What is the point in that? I really like helping people but if you don’t tell me why we are connecting then I’m not going to connect with you!
- On the desktop version of LinkedIn, personalisation is very straight-forward. Simply click on the person’s profile, click Connect, select a reason how you know the person, then write a short personalised message. Note that in the People You May Know section on the Home Page, if you hit Connect you don’t get the option to personalise the invite, so make sure you go onto the person’s profile first.
- On the LinkedIn app, again select the individual’s profile but then click on the 3 dots in the top-right hand corner. You then have the option to customize the invite. It’s that simple!
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