Like robots.txt but for LinkedIn
I've been getting a lot of pitches on LinkedIn lately. I wish there were a way to quickly demonstrate what I'm not at all interested in, what I'm not responsible for, and it would save me AND vendors a lot of wasted time and effort. Sort of like a robots.txt file, but for LinkedIn.
What is a Robots.txt file?
From Google:
A robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers which pages or files the crawler can or can't request from your site. This is used mainly to avoid overloading your site with requests; it is not a mechanism for keeping a web page out of Google.
It's a simple idea: if there are pages you don't want fetched, you use this text file to specify what you don't want crawled. It looks like this:
# Block googlebot from example.com/directory1/... and example.com/directory2/... # but allow access to directory2/subdirectory1/... # All other directories on the site are allowed by default. User-agent: googlebot Disallow: /directory1/ Disallow: /directory2/ Allow: /directory2/subdirectory1/ # Block the entire site from anothercrawler. User-agent: anothercrawler
Disallow: /
My LinkedInPitches.txt file:
#Tell Recruiters and Hiring Companies What I'm Interested In #Don't accept recruiters hiring for a CMO role, but allow them to reach out if there's someone in my network they'd like an intro to User-agent: Recruiter Disallow: Job-Requests Allow: Network-Introductions Allow: Connections #Tell Explainer Video Vendors I'm Not Interested User-agent: Explainer-Video-Vendor Disallow: / #Tell Event Vendors That My Team Handles Events, Not Me User-agent: Event-Vendor Allow: Connections Disallow: / Refer: Axonius-Event-Team #Tell Lead List Vendors I'n Not Interested User-agent: List-Vendor Disallow: / #Accept All Requests from Security Marketers User-agent: Cybersecurity-Marketer Allow: / #Accept Requests from Startup Founders User-agent: Startup-Founder Allow: / #Accept Requests from Cybersecurity Professionals User-agent: Cybersecurity-Professional Allow: / #Tell Meeting Setters to Contact our SDR/BDR Team User-agent: Meeting-Setter Refer: Axonius-BDR-Team Refer: Axonius-SDR-Team
Just a thought. I know that this would require classification, the ability to refer, etc. But to me, the current process is broken:
- Send a connection request
- Immediately request a 30-minute meeting
- Follow up until the person being pitched replies
It seems to me that it's a waste of time and effort for both the vendors that are just trying to do their jobs by finding people that may be relevant to sell to as well as those being pitched on things they're not relevant for.
Thank you for attending my TED talk.
Chief Growth Officer & Co-Founder Cybersecurity Marketing Society
3 年PREACH
Founder & CEO @ Growth Street? | Author of "Unrivaled" (Spring 2025) | Fractional CMO | Go-to-market expert | Board member | Strategic advisor | Former Fortune 500 + start-up executive | Giddy Up! ??
3 年Can you talk to someone about this? I’m in.
SVP Product at 6sense | Former CEO & Cofounder at Fortella
3 年Interesting idea Nate. The non-geeky version of this would be an enhanced "Who can reach you" preference under the Communications setting. Minimally if LinkedIn could allow you to state who you are interested in hearing from (i.e. profile type) and about what (i.e. topic) then it would be a great start. The benefit to members is obvious - higher quality communications. I also think this would be helpful to LinkedIn. They can build a valuable intent database. cc: Tomer Cohen
Senior SEO Consultant | Organic Growth & Fixing Technical Website Issues
3 年User-agent: * Disallow: *
This suggestion may make too much sense- Sign me up!