A salesman walks into a networking event and approaches someone.

He doesn’t say a word, no greeting, no “Hi my name is ______” he simply hands the person a piece of paper with one sentence written on it and walks away.

He approaches someone else and does the same thing!

He continues doing this for the duration of the networking event and then wonders why no one responded to him.

He leaves and returns to another networking event the next day and does the exact, same thing.

Eventually he writes off networking as unproductive!

Want to know what he had written on that piece of paper?

“I’d like to add you to my professional network!”

Kind of silly for him to think that he could just walk over to a stranger and hand them a piece of paper, never greet them or interact and expect results, right?

Well that’s what you’re doing on LinkedIn when you send those lazy ass invitation templates.

You know . . .

“I’d like to add you to my professional network”

No note!

No greeting!

And not a very SOCIAL approach to SOCIAL Networking!

People like to blame this on the LinkedIn app or the “People you may know”feature because they don’t allow you to customize the invite.

Here’s a crazy thought. . .

Don’t use those things!

Somewhere along the line someone sold you a bill of goods that made you think its acceptable NOT to be SOCIAL when you embrace SOCIAL networking.

Maybe they told you that this is a numbers game and that you should amass a large collection of names instead of taking the time to connect properly?

Perhaps its time to rethink that philosophy and politely call out those people sending you that God awful LinkedIn template disguised as an actual invitation to connect?

When I get them, I respond with “What prompted you to want to connect with me?”

No answer? No hard feelings but I won’t connect with you!

Like you, my time is valuable and its a poor use of my time to spend it on those who lack manners and who make it a habit of remaining silent with their network.

Any way, how’s that for a rant and a half? 🙂

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