Whether you’d like to acknowledge it or not, first impressions really do count!

I really wish more people understood that statement to the point of living it while trying to connect with someone on LinkedIn!

Here are 5 things you need to absolutely own if you want to make a favorable impression, right from “Hello”!

1) Make sure your profile is in order BEFORE you ask people to connect! I get that you like to fish but do I really need to see a picture of you holding one? Similarly, unless you are in fact a talking dog, please don’t post a picture of a dog and while we’re at it, enough with the logos. By the way, you’re not allowed to use a logo pic on LinkedIn. Make sure your picture is professional (and recent) and presents the world with your best visual self.

Oh, and a really important newsflash . . . People will feel you have something to hide if you DON’T have a picture. I really don’t care how ugly or attractive you are, I feel a face with a name will only help. Think I’m kidding? I put my ugly mug on my profile and so far, no one has died of shock! Own who you are and if people don’t like it, send a pic of your ass for them to kiss.

Make sure your profile is completed and if you write your profile in the third person just know that you’re reminding Paul of that episode when George Costanza kept saying “George is getting upset” Do you talk like that in the real world? It’s silly and people don’t talk like that!

Time Out: I like to incorporate “The Kitchen Table Test” to all of my messaging meaning that if I wouldn’t say it to you at the kitchen table, in a conversational manner, I won’t say it. The only time I speak in the third person at my kitchen table is after I’ve been drinking tequila.

2) Don’t let LinkedIn say your hello for you by sending that lame templated invites. Sorry to disappoint you, but relationships usually work better when we do our own talking! It’s also typical and really lazy.

What should you write?

You could start with a simple hello and why you chose to reach out to them (members of group, know a mutual contact, work in the same industry, read their contact and share their views, also talk about yourself in the third person etc).

3) If you choose to send someone that awful LinkedIn template be prepared to respond when someone like me asks you “What prompted you to want to connect with me?”

I can tell you that if you send me one of those templates and I ask you “What prompted you to want to connect with me?” and you blow it off, we’re done! You just failed the “Are you serious about connecting with me” test.

I have zero use for “connections” who are unresponsive and zero use for people who are obviously collecting a bunch of names so they can pretend they’re in middle school again.

4) Once you connect with someone remember your manners and respond.

One of the things I teach my clients is to send an immediate thank you email with additional contact information. At the end of the email, I have them say the following “Enough about me, where else can I connect with you?”

It would surprise you how many people won’t respond and here’s where my panties go into the proverbial bunch.

If you’ve sent me a crappy templated invite and then I have to ask you what prompted you to reach out to me and then I send you a friendly note only to get the blow off, you’ve made a sh*tty impression! Kind of makes me want to ask you “So why are you here and how’s your vow of silence working out for you?”

Time Out! I feel a need to be clear on something, I’m not saying that if people don’t respond in 5 minutes, we ditch them! I’m saying that it makes a really bad impression when you demonstrate both a laziness in your intro and unresponsiveness in your actions.

Please tell me where that has ever helped a great relationship get started?

5) And please underline this one. Acceptance of an invite is not an opt in for your newsletter, auto responder campaign etc.

The only thing that disturbs me more than this is the universal excuse I receive when I call someone out. They tell me that their email program automatically pulls from their inbox. So here’s a nutty suggestion, ditch the program.

I know, that’s why I make the big bucks!

Your turn . . .

What are your thoughts about what I’ve shared with you?

What have you experienced with others making a bad first impression with you?

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