Wednesday, November 9, 2011

What if you send a LinkedIn invite to someone who doesn't respond?

I recently received this question via LinkedIn: What if you send a LinkedIn invite to someone you have not networked with in a while and they do not respond? What then? What's a appropriate way to respond?
Dear LinkedIn User:
Some people don’t pay enough attention to or respond quickly to LinkedIn invitations. You can try to reconnect with long-lost contacts via a direct email or telephone. If you have a specific reason such as a question to ask or topic to bring up, it will make the conversation go more smoothly. For example, perhaps you saw the person’s name mentioned in a blog, listed as a speaker at an tech conference or given an award. I’m sure a call to say congratulations would be welcome. Or, if all else fails, just say,
“Hi … this is … We met at …. It’s been so long since we saw each other last, I thought I contact you and see what you’re up to these days. Do you have a few minutes to chat?”

If your past relationship was good, most people will probably respond positively. If not, then maybe it’s time to look to connect with someone else who is more receptive.

2 comments:

Max said...

great post, Don. I noticed that email sometimes works much better than a linkedin message, even if a user has 500+ connections.

meticulouseditor said...

I had a very bad experience with LinkedIn a few months ago. First, I see no value in compiling lists of "contact" online anyway. So I politely decline invitations from former clients. BUT - when I decided to accept one, LI demanded a profile, then proceeded to INVADE my address book and LINKEDIN sent out invitations to my address book!! If I could, I'd press criminal charges against them for cyber-criminal invasion of privacy.

They refused to send out an apology to the many email addresses THEY sent "my" invitations to.
What would you do?