Everyone is a big believer in broadening your LinkedIn network. In fact, it is important to have as diverse of network as possible and to be liberal in accepting LinkedIn connection requests. There’s no shortcut to building strong authentic relationships on this business-oriented social media platform, but there is a shortcut to getting on the radar of those who need to know you. This shortcut is actually fairly simple: tightening the parameters of your connection requests and feigning off the ones who are not useful to you! Check out the 4 types of Linked connection requests to ignore:
The Anonymous Connect. LinkedIn tells us that having a photo makes it 14-times more likely for your profile to be viewed—and for good reason. People want to see the friendly face behind the networking page. With catfishing and other types of identity fraud becoming more prevalent as technology refines itself, a profile without a professional or well-taken headshot begs the question: “Is this a real person?” Even if you hide your profile picture from accounts that do not follow you, consider uploading one, along with a cover photo, to your LinkedIn profile.
The Foot-in-the-Door Salesman. As you probably well-know, you can include messages with connection requests on LinkedIn. So, it’s pretty simple to pinpoint this type of intruder on the business networking platform. These messages are less about you or their reason for adding you and are more like delivering a sales pitch. Think of it this way – these types of LinkedIn connections are more like those late-night infomercials than real people. Look out for verbiage that includes anything about marketing, sales, analytics, pipelines, retention, or return on investment.
The Minimalist. Briefness has its place. It’s good to be able to surmise information, like career history, when the time is right. Sometimes, it can brevity can be a bad thing, though, like when filling out your LinkedIn profile. Despite suggestions that go against it, some people take their mere presence on LinkedIn as satisfying enough to potential employers and recruiters. However, when you’re left without any information regarding the potential connection, it may leave one questioning their motives for a request – just like The Anonymous Connect.
The Trojan Horse. These connection request messages bear seemingly free gifts, delivered out of the goodness of the sender’s heart. Free e-books, workshops, and even gift cards are common lures for unsuspecting users. However, the gift is a mere way into your professional inner circle, and once accepted, it will be followed by an overwhelming barrage of emails or direct messages. These contacts will claim to be checking in to see how you’re doing. Sometimes, they will question if you like the product enough to invest in x, y, or z. Skip the charade and turn down these requests immediately.
As the saying goes, knowledge is power – and, at Westmount at Forest Oaks in Arlington, Texas, we couldn’t agree more! We hope that this blog has presented you with the valuable information that you were seeking out.