The Art of Personalizing LinkedIn Connection Requests
When it comes to growing your professional network on LinkedIn, the ‘Connect’ button is your main tool. Yet, a large number of professionals continue to push this button without adding any personal touch, making their networking efforts less effective. Personalizing connection requests on this platform can significantly impact your networking by making it more meaningful, purposeful, and successful.
Why Personalize LinkedIn Connection Requests?
Every professional on LinkedIn has experienced receiving cold connection requests—from those with no messages to generic notes that show no personalization or clear intent. Often, these requests are left unattended or outright rejected. This situation illustrates the crucial importance of personalization when it comes to LinkedIn networking.
Personalized connection requests stand out in an ocean of generic ones. They give someone a compelling reason to accept your connection request and potentially engage with you, building a foundation for a professional relationship.
Personalizing the Connection Request: Four Elements
The practice of personalizing LinkedIn connection requests can be broken down into four main elements:
1. Reason for Connecting: Compose a specific reason why you want to connect with the person. For instance, you could say that you’ve followed their work for a while and appreciate their insights, or that you’ve read an article they wrote and found it enlightening.
2. Common Ground: Identify shared connections, experiences, or interests. You might mention a mutual connection, shared alma mater, or a common passion for a certain industry topic.
3. Value Proposition: Show them how accepting your connection request might be beneficial to them, not just to you. Could you provide them with interesting conversations, resources, or connections?
4. Ease into the Connection: Maintain a low-pressure, authentic tone in your message. Avoid aggressive sales or networking tactics that might make the other person feel uncomfortable.
How to Personalize LinkedIn Connection Requests: A Step by step Process
To invoke a more personalized approach to your LinkedIn connection requests, consider these steps:
Step 1: Do Your Research
Start by digging deeper into the person’s profile. Look for shared connection, experiences, or groups. Read through their recent posts or articles. The intention here is to understand who they are, what they do, and what they care about.
Step 2: Make it About Them
While writing your message, keep the focus on them, not you. Display your authenticity by showing that you respect their work, value their knowledge or admire their journey.
Step 3: Be Concise and Clear
Avoid sending out lengthy and verbose messages. Be as succinct as possible—ideally, your message should not extend beyond 1-2 short paragraphs.
Step 4: Proofread Your Message
Before hitting ‘send’, always proof-read your message for spelling, grammar, and tone. An error-free and friendly message reflects your professionalism.
Step 5: Follow Up Graciously
If you do not get a response, assume the request got lost in the shuffle. A gentle reminder is acceptable, but remember not to appear overly desperate or pushy in your follow-up message.
A Last word: Courteous Persistence Is the Key
As you proceed to personalize your LinkedIn connection requests, it’s important to remember that not everyone will reply or accept your request—and that’s perfectly okay. Networking isn’t about achieving a 100% acceptance rate. Instead, it’s about forming connections that can offer mutual value in the long term. Therefore, don’t be discouraged by the non-responders. Maintain your courteous persistence, and keep connecting.
Building a successful professional network on LinkedIn is a slow but rewarding process, and personalizing your connection requests is an impactful step in that journey. Don’t be the person who spams others to build a network. Be the one who values meaningful professional relationships. And remember, LinkedIn is a networking platform—so, make every connection count!