The Biggest Error Thousands Of Professionals Make On LinkedIn Each Day

Part of Kathy Caprino’s series “Building a Powerful Support Community”

As most professionals know, LinkedIn has become a massively powerful professional tool—for connecting with colleagues and mentors, building personal brands, sharing your organization's stories, eliciting interest from potential customers, clients, recruiters and hiring managers, sharing thought leadership and more. And LinkedIn is growing. Some recent statistics from?BusinessofApps.com ?reveal that LinkedIn generated $8 billion revenue in 2020, an increase of 19% year-on-year and:

• LinkedIn has 756 million members
• The U.S. has the most LinkedIn members, followed by India and China
• According to LinkedIn, over 100 million job applications are sent each month
• Over 57 million businesses and 120,000 schools have LinkedIn accounts

According to?Hootsuite , LinkedIn is the most trusted social network in the U.S. And?Microsoft has reported ?that LinkedIn topped $3 billion in ad revenue in the last year, surpassing Snap and Pinterest.

Clearly, LinkedIn’s impact is expanding and for many professionals and businesses, it’s vitally important to get it right in terms of how they’re engaging with others there. A burned bridge on LinkedIn is often one that can’t be rebuilt. You have one chance to make a powerful and positive first impression, so it’s important to succeed at it.

From my perspective as one who is very active on LinkedIn and in hearing from hundreds of individuals each year who are making some sort of a request or pitch, I can say that the single biggest error I see professionals make on the platform is the manner in which they are reaching out to a complete stranger.

So often, they’re taking the wrong approach that ends up being off-putting and opportunity-crushing. And that results in destroying the chance to connect with inspiring people who could have been very instrumental for them and their careers.

For instance, people commonly now use LinkedIn as an avenue for the “cold-calling” approach , reaching out with a cold sales pitch or offer, without knowing anything relevant about the individual they’re pitching to or ascertaining in advance if what they’re selling would be of the slightest interest or value. And worse, they don’t expend any energy making their pitches engaging or helpful.

The reality is that the majority of people on LinkedIn absolutely hate being pitched to, and are viewing the platform as a professional social network, not a place to be hawked and sold to. Whenever I’ve posted a comment or message on LinkedIn about this problem of being cold-pitched continually, I’ve received hundreds of comments and messages from members sharing their extreme frustration about it.

In my?Forbes.com interview ?several years ago with?Judy Robinett —startup funding expert, bestselling author and a super connector at the highest level—on her book?How To Be a Power Connector: The 5+50+100 Rule for Turning Your Business Networking Into Profits ,?she shared what she viewed were the top 5 blunders networkers of all kinds make, and these apply directly to LinkedIn networking approaches as well. They are:

1. They network in the wrong places for what they need
2. They network at the wrong level for their goals
3. They have no way to assess the relative value of the connections they make
4. They have no system for optimizing their networking efforts
5. They fail to network in the best way to create high-value, long-term connections

These 5 networking blunders sum up very well how these cold pitches and blind outreaches to strangers on LinkedIn (or to other LinkedIn members whom they barely know) are missing the mark, and also slamming doors that could have been very instrumental if they’d been opened creatively, wisely and respectfully in the first place.

Here’s what to avoid, when reaching out?to a stranger on LinkedIn :

If you’re hoping to sell your services or products, instead of relying only on empty pitches sent to the wrong people, do your homework and offer something helpful to inform, educate and entertain

I personally receive approximately 50 cold pitches each week on LinkedIn, and I would say only 1 in 500 is anywhere close to being something I’m interested in. Most often, I shouldn’t have been included in the target list in the first place, because I’m not a fit with the key demographics and psychographics of those who would want or use this product or service.

But when my interest is piqued, it’s because the individual didn’t just send some uninspired canned language about how their services are great. They went to the effort to create something unique and engaging, and tailored to me personally, sharing their own thought leadership and expertise on the topic, and sending a dedicated Loom video, for instance, demonstrating?exactly?how they could help (such as in copywriting for a sales page, or offering a new graphic design for my website, etc.). They showed clearly how what they offer relates to my potential needs and how they could move the needle for me and my business.

Done in that way, we've been given something helpful that will move us forward in deciding whether or not we want to learn more about the individual. And because of that act of giving, there’s been a true connection formed, and that connection is usually fruitful for both parties. As an example, sometimes I've been motivated to connect off the platform with the new connection, and from that continued interaction, I'm able to grow in my comfort in introducing them to other colleagues who might find their services helpful.

Don’t ask for a big favor of someone you’ve never met

I’ve received many different kinds of requests over the years from total strangers, including folks asking for key introductions to hiring managers who are overseeing highly-coveted roles at well-known organizations (including LinkedIn, Google, Salesforce, etc.). Even though I’ve never spoken to or connected directly with the individual who’s reaching out, and don't know anything about them, I’m asked if I’d introduce them to my connection at these organizations, and recommend them for the role.

Don’t make the mistake of sending an out-of-the-blue request to someone you don’t know, asking for a special introduction or favor. Remember this important principle: People will help you (and buy from you) only when they know, like and trust you, and for that to happen, you have to form a real, authentic connection. And being connected at the first level on LinkedIn doesn’t mean you have a real relationship,?yet. To form a true bond and relationship, there’s a back and forth required, a mutually beneficial and rich exchange—of ideas, support, interests, and other elements—that go into forging a real-life relationship.

Individuals aren’t going to put their own reputations on the line by introducing you to a hiring manager if they don’t know anything about you, your personality, your performance history or your fit for a specific role.

A key tip for engaging on LinkedIn is the same tip that applies to any kind of healthy social engagement:

Use your head and engage your heart, consideration and common sense. You wouldn't walk up to a total stranger at a cocktail party, introduce yourself then immediately ask them for a huge favor, or instantly try to sell them something, would you? If you did, you wouldn't succeed and it would leave a negative first impression.

Don’t press the “Connect” button without adding a personalized note

When you’re making your first outreach and sending an invitation to connect, don’t just click the “Connect” button and leave it at that. Write a personalized note (not just canned language such as, "Hi, I’d like to connect”) of several sentences that share some interesting details on how you learned of this individual, why their work is of interest personally to you and offer a few compelling reasons for wanting to follow them and get to know their work better. Use the full number of characters you have access to, and make your message about them, not all about you.

Overall, the key takeaway is to remember to put in the necessary creative effort to find an authentic way to be of service, to build a true, mutually-beneficial connection, and to be gracious and helpful.

When you do, you'll have the opportunity to form wonderful bonds that have the power to elevate and enrich you for years to come.

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Kathy Caprino, M.A. is a career and leadership coach, speaker, educator, and author of?The Most Powerful You: 7 Bravery-Boosting Paths to Career Bliss . She helps professionals build their most rewarding and successful careers through her?Career & Leadership Breakthrough ?programs,?Finding Brave podcast, and her courses, including her new?Most Powerful You ?digital course.

Join Kathy in her upcoming LinkedIn "Career Talks" interview with LinkedIn's Andrew Seaman on "Networking for Job Seekers: Building a Support Community To Help" on August 26th at 1:00 pm EST .