Good and Bad LinkedIn Etiquette

On LinkedIn, bad behaviors can make one lose connections while appropriate, respectful, and effective givers gain influence and connections.

Solicitation messaging can get yourself disconnected from others, and worse…

No one has any patience for cold calls, or LinkedIn messages asking to buy products or services.

If you are one of those who is sending group solicitation messages on LinkedIn, I warn you that you are going to be disconnected by a lot of people. Why? 

If you were my first level connection, it is not just that your salesy LinkedIn message is annoying to an individual recipient like myself, but as soon as I see it, I am worried that my circle of connections are also being annoyed with your group solicitation messages, and you got connected with them through your connection with me. That makes me feel responsible for my connections and friends (as if I brought someone into my company, and this person screwed up big time).

Imagine how you’d feel if your brother picked his nose at your wedding for all your friends to see. – Pretty gross, uh? You get the point. 

What do you think I might do next? Put yourself in my shoes – would you want to be blamed for bringing a “bad fish” to your own circle of connections on LinkedIn?

There are no quick and easy sales on LinkedIn.  

You first need to earn trust and confidence about your expertise and yourself. Sending spamming LinkedIn messages will do just the opposite for you. Besides, LinkedIn’s AI algorithm will soon punish large scale junk messengers. They do shut down spammers’ LinkedIn profiles for good.

The kind of LinkedIn videos that can turn people off

Then there is the “right in your face” selfie video, with a big talking mouth, and nothing but a huge face, dead center. If that face belongs to Audrey Hepburn, you can get away with it; otherwise, you come off as a bit too full of yourself, UNLESS what you say is substantial. But still, don’t put your face in the center of the screen and too up-close-and-personal with nothing but five facial features. If you don’t personally talk like that with others, please keep a comfortable distance so no one gets spat on with your virtual saliva.

You feel grossed out? – That’s the point. 

What CAN you do on LinkedIn, that is appropriate, respectful, and effective?

1. Give, give, give. This rule has been around for ages, long before LinkedIn, but is the hardest to implement.. Give generously, without thinking about what you get in return. Ask very carefully, very sparingly, very respectfully. Give what? – very valuable content worth others’ time, great insights and ideas, words of encouragement and praise for others, timely issues everyone cares about… in short, add value to OTHERS; don’t just promote yourself all the time.

2. LinkedIn is the place where we reach out and link in with others, there is nothing wrong with reaching out to new prospects and old connections. I do encourage you to reach out but in a genuinely respectful manner. Briefly introduce yourself and your value propositions, and suggest that if they are interested in a chat with you about your services, feel free to let you know (which implies that if they have no interest or need for your expertise, they can just ignore your request). You leave it up to them to reply to you or not.

3. It is best to first have met someone already in a networking meeting, virtually or in person, before sending an invite to connect. After you are connected, if you are interested in getting to know each other better, schedule a virtual or in person meeting in order to build a relationship. No amount of technology can replace the work and time invested in relationship building. LinkedIn can only connect people virtually; building and growing a deeper relationship will take a lot more than a few clicks.  

4. Take a few minutes a day to comment on, like, and even share great content posted by others. Show your support generously. If others do the same to what you have posted, send a “Thank you for liking my post” message to them, to show your appreciation. 

5. When you act like a good LinkedIn citizen, a genuine giver, a source of helpful information, and even a thought leader, people will naturally want to check out your LinkedIn profile, – is your profile merely average, above average, or outstanding?

Now, after suggesting all the above, allow me to humbly offer our services in LinkedIn profiling and optimization. If and only if you are curious to find out how we can improve your LinkedIn profile, please feel free to leave a message at 1-888-288-4533, or fill out the Contact form on our website: www.10PlusProfile.com We will be happy to schedule a chat with you to get to know each other better.

Thank you!

Written by Joanne Tan, edited by Susan Olson.

?Joanne Tan, 2021, all rights reserved.