You receive a request to connect on LinkedIn, you check out their profile, and if you deem them to be worthy enough to be apart of your network, you accept their request. Sometimes the request is accompanied by a personal message; you may or may not read it, and you may or may not reply to it. Then sometime shortly after you've accepted their request you may receive a spammy in your face message about their product or service, and you cannot hit the remove connection button fast enough.
What about all those people who send you a request but never engage with you further than that? These are the people I've been thinking about recently. Should they be apart of your network if they provide little to no value or engagement? How do you gauge just how much value they will contribute to your network?
Due to the way LinkedIn is set up, it is a manual process to look into how engaged a person is on the network. There has to be a better way to go about it rather than stalking through their activity feed. When you are at a networking event or something similar and connecting with someone face-to-face, you have a chat, and then you tend to swamp details. You ask questions about them, and they ask questions about you, you can tell if they are engaged in the conversation and the topics you are talking about—the easiest way to do this on LinkedIn in through sending a message.
Taking the first step to a more engaged LinkedIn network
There is an incredible number of online articles about the hows and whys to writing a personalised message to those you want to connect with on LinkedIn. However, there are very few on how to write a message to thank someone for wanting to be apart of your network. What if rather than waiting for them to take the first step you take it, and unlike the earlier spammy messages, you make the conversation about them. People love to talk about themselves, and if someone isn't going to respond to you about you asking about them, then they are just as unlikely going to provide value to your network.
I send those new to my LinkedIn network a "hello" message (templates are below), and if they don't respond to it within two to three weeks, I then consider the real value that they bring to my network and whether I should remove them as a connection. Best email practice is to get back to someone within 24-48 hours; however I know myself that there can at times be competing priorities and I don't rate getting back to someone on LinkedIn as a high priority compared to finishing an essential executive report. This is why I give them two to three weeks.
Once they do respond to your message, I make sure I reply in a timely manner. Depending on the conversation I may ask a follow-up question and continue the conversation, if that's not the case at the very least I how appreciation for the insights and information they've shared.
Templates for "hello" messages:
To those, you haven't worked with and have not met before
Hello insert name,
Thank you for reaching out and connecting with me on LinkedIn. I'm glad to be a part of your network.
I'm curious to know, insert question; ask about their past career, the industry that they work in, or something around their experience
I look forward to staying in touch.
Thank you,
insert your name
insert any contact details you wish to share, like your website or other active business-related social media handles
To those, you have worked with or know personally
Hello insert name,
Thank you for reaching out and connecting with me on LinkedIn. I'm glad to be a part of your network.
It was lovely to work with you at insert company / It was lovely to see you at insert event. I hope all is going well. insert a question; because you already know them it should be pretty easy for you to think of something to ask them
I look forward to staying in touch.
Thank you,
insert your name
insert any contact details you wish to share, like your website or other active business-related social media handles
Do you send people messages to thank people for connecting with you on LinkedIn? How do you thank them?
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