Like robots.txt but for LinkedIn
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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:

  1. Send a connection request
  2. Immediately request a 30-minute meeting
  3. 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.


Maria Velasquez

Chief Growth Officer & Co-Founder Cybersecurity Marketing Society

3 年

PREACH

Michelle Heath

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.

Rahul Sachdev

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

Dan Soderman

Senior SEO Consultant | Organic Growth & Fixing Technical Website Issues

3 年

User-agent: * Disallow: *

This suggestion may make too much sense- Sign me up!

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