How To Handle LinkedIn Creepers
Kyle Reyes
Owner, Law Enforcement Today, Blue Lives Matter and The Police Tribune. CEO, The Silent Partner Marketing. Serial entrepreneur. Christian conservative. Keynote speaker.
The art of dealing with the Tinder players on LinkedIn.
People really need to start understanding what LinkedIn is for.
It's for networking. For finding leads. For seeing how many of the "cool kids" from high school are still unemployed.
It's NOT for hitting on people.
So why is it that so many people seem to think the LinkedIn and Tinder are one and the same?
A number of females I know run into this problem on a regular basis. They are business professionals. They are mining LinkedIn to find prospects or networking opportunities. Then, all of a sudden, the CEO of a major corporation hits them up. Gold, right? Until the back and forth InMail starts looking like this:
CEO: "Hi - I saw your profile and was quite impressed. What are you searching for?"
Woman: "I've been on LI for a couple of years now and have found that it's a great opportunity to meet professionals like yourself. My company offers xyz services...and from what I know about your company...it might make sense for us to chat."
CEO: "Sure. How about over dinner?"
Woman: "I was thinking perhaps I could swing by the office. I'll be happy to bring coffee and donuts for the staff."
CEO: "How about I just take YOU out for coffee the morning after our dinner?"
So what is one to do? Do you sever the connection? Clearly this is an individual that's not looking to get down to the same kind of business you are.
Here's the 1-2-3 with how to save face while putting the creepers in their place.
1. Professionally respond that while you appreciate the compliment, your boss/husband/IT department wouldn't be crazy about you using LinkedIn for flirting purposes. Clearly state your intention. If this doesn't do it - cut bait.
2. Call them out. Let them know that while they might feel they are offering a compliment, you - as someone who doesn't know them - finds it to instead be disconcerting. Let them know that if they are indeed looking for the services or product you offer, it may be more appropriate for you to now refer them to someone else. If they are serious about doing business with you, they'll be mortified and make amends.
3. Keep in mind that there's also a distinct possibility that it's not a creeper at all - but rather a spammer. There's a pretty good chance that if they mention being a prince, having a large sum of money, or have countless grammar errors in their message...they might just be hitting you up from Nigeria and hoping for a little cash. Don't fall victim.
Ladies - what have been your experiences with creepers on LinkedIn? And how have you handled it?
POSTED BY
Kyle Reyes is President and CEO of The Silent Partner Marketing. He's also an acclaimed Keynote Speaker on entrepreneurship, leadership, marketing and social media. You can find him on Facebook and Twitter.
Manager Tour operations at Global Destination Kolkata. (West Bengal) INDIA
8 年nice article!!
Electronic Engineer at Large
8 年Kyle Reyes -- While I find your short article informative and factual, I'd like to point out that there are people from Nigeria -- and all over the world, in fact, that operate legitimate businesses and aren't sending "spam". Before you answer an e-mail, or even open attachments or embedded content, it's wise to find out who/what company owns the server and if the sending origin is legitimate. Keeping track of IP addresses and routing paths of unknown mailers is pretty straightforward, takes only the ability to cut/paste, and can keep your private information away from list-compilers and broadband advertisers. If you're unsure who sent you something, it's best to ignore it and leave photos, re-directs, and attachments in a special folder. NEVER reply to a sender that you don't know -- all your doing is verifying that your e-mail address is active and owned by someone with a pulse. Always run your browser in an isolated memory area, and eviscerate the cache contents and ALL cookies at least once/hour. I use "CCleaner" (Piriform), because it's always being updated and it's free. If you make a threat to a spammer, you'd better be ready to swiftly back it up! I only use the "nuclear" option if the mailer hits me more than once, and there are verifiable threats within the spam that could do damage to data or gain access to contact lists.If you're not an ethical hacker, armed with at least a few tricks and deliverable malware, you can always send an embedded image file and use it to trigger something with an HTML "ONMOUSEOVER" command. One need not have to learn very much, and a cursor on a simple photo can be used to do anything from post a large, irremovable warning message to actually format the local drive in the background while the offender's computer keeps running!
The Next Most Powerful Piece On the Chess Board / Trusted Partner - Entrepreneur / The Universe Beloved / A Future Games Changer / God's Favourite Daughter / Multi Trillions Royal Darling
8 年Creepers on linkedin? Well he's gone..back to the heaven for good I guess. And no one missed him..