Want to connect to someone on LinkedIn? It’s pretty simple. Well, in theory. To connect to a person on LinkedIn all you technically have to do is invite them and wait to see if they accept your invitation. The catch is, they can say no. But so can you if you get invited.
Give them a reason to connect!
As wonderful as you are, please understand they may decline. Or, if you’re the one being invited to connect, you may of course choose to decline them. It’s not personal. Usually.
So when extending an invitation, it helps to be polite and offer a good reason they might be interested — such as a mutual connection, interest, or group you have in common. You can also message them to explain more about yourself.
But again … if they say no or don’t even respond, it’s not about you. I have a dear friend who took ages to notice my invitation-to-connect message. And then he wouldn’t even connect! It’s about how he uses LinkedIn, not about me. Or so he tells me.
Accept LinkedIn invitations to connect?
There are different philosophies about whether to accept all invitations from everyone (open networking) or connect to only people you know well or who you would want others to see as part of your trusted online community.
Since people may see LinkedIn connections as an extension of your professional network, some feel they only want to connect with folks they feel good about recommending to others to connect with, help, or do business with.
To learn about a potential connection (if you don’t already know them), review their public LinkedIn profile and maybe do some extra googling. You can then decide if you want to accept (or invite them to connect to you). Make sure you also have a strong LinkedIn profile, so people can decide if they want to connect with you.
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