Details Changed to Protect the Guilty…

LinkedIn is a powerful tool that can facilitate connections… or have prospects hitting ‘delete’ just as fast as they do with ineffective emails and/or voice mail messages.

This is a message I recently received through LinkedIn. The details have been changed to protect the guilty party… and of course, I’ve added my commentary.

Hello, [Not, “Hello Wendy,” just “Hello.” Can’t get more generic than that.]

How are you? Long time no talk. [I am not sure I’ve ever spoken with this person.]

I want to invite you to our upcoming webinar where we’ll take a close look at (name of product). [I have no idea what this product is, what it does or why I should be interested.]

We have made some significant enhancements to the tool recently. [Really? Who cares?]

Please let me know if you have any questions. [My question is: Why did you send this to me?]

I hope to see you at the webinar. [Ha!]

The writer of this LinkedIn message then added: “Please watch this message.” The message was a link to a video that said, and I’m not making this up: “Please come to our webinar where we will take a deep dive into the features and functionality of (product name.)”

LinkedIn is a powerful tool… but like any tool it is only as powerful as the person using it. This LinkedIn user should have asked himself: “Why should people be interested in this?” before he sent this message. Unfortunately, he did not. My guess: Very small attendance at his webinar.