The One Critical Mistake We Make On LinkedIn

When I first joined LinkedIn, I didn’t totally trust it. After all, the internet knows a lot about us, so does it make sense to feed the beast? Does it make sense to have a search engine, (LinkedIn is many things, but especially a search engine) know more about our social interactions than we do? LinkedIn knows who we know, knows who searches for us, and knows who all of our friends and contacts know and most likely has their work and personal email addresses. It is pretty powerful relational information.

I did however start on LI with a very important personal rule, from which I rarely stray. I must know you, have heard of you, or have met you, to Link-In with you. It’s a pretty straightforward rule.

My logic behind this rule is that to join a group or engage in a social network, there should be some exclusivity, some intentional barriers to entry, for it to be of any value. So, I trust that someone who invites me into their LinkedIn circle, is someone who has deemed me worthy of their network.

I like LinkedIn. It keeps me organized. I can keep in touch with a couple thousand people that I know on the platform. I even elect to pay for the premium service because it helps me in my own business.

Here are some of my observations on the best way to use LinkedIn:

• Don’t sell on LinkedIn, rather, educate or offer value first
• Share content that is relevant
• Introduce people to others if you think that there may be value in that relationship
• Start a group, a conversation, or create a post that has value and is shareable
• Stop posting math problems, and quizzes, personal photos. If you think it belongs on Facebook, it probably does belong on Facebook

So, what is the single strategic mistake that everyone is making on LinkedIn? It’s the invitation. It’s lazy and crappy. It’s LI’s out of the box invite.

"Hi Jim, I’d like to join your LinkedIn network".

It isn’t very imaginative, it didn’t take much work---that single mouse click. But as a marketer, I want to know from your invitation: what’s in it for me? Or maybe what’s in it for both of us? I don’t need an essay, I just need to know.

Here are a couple of examples of a much better LinkedIn invitation:

"Hi John, I viewed your profile on LinkedIn and noticed that we are both members of the XYZ Association, and we both know Rob Thompson of XYZ Industries. It would be my pleasure to add you to my network."

"Hi Julie, I see that we know many of the same people. It is surprising that we have not yet met. I am headed to the big show in NYC in a few weeks and would like to join you for a coffee. I think we could connect on some common initiatives. Would you accept my invitation so we can meet up in the big apple?"

"Hi James, I tried to catch up with you after your presentation for the industry last week in Dallas. I thought you did a great job. I would like to connect with you and if you would like an introduction to anyone in my network, please let me know, I would be happy to help."

Bottom line, you don't walk up to people randomly in public asking for their contact information. So why do it digitally with the out-of-box LI invite?

Adding someone to your network is like a tacit endorsement. So make an effort and do it right. Avoid using LinkedIn's standard invitation. Write your own and remember --- what's in it for me?

Jim Beretta is a strategic marketer located in Cambridge, Ontario. He consults companies, manufacturers, associations, technology start-ups and governments across North America and Europe.

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