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LinkedIn is one of the most powerful tools on the internet for connecting with other professionals, recruiters and influential people in your chosen field or dream company. Yet fewer things are more frustrating than investing the time and effort to send connection requests, only to have them ignored.

Different LinkedIn users have different philosophies about accepting or rejecting requests, so it can be difficult to please everyone. If you’re finding nearly all your requests are ignored, however, here are three common reasons why:

Your profile is sparse.

The overwhelming majority of LinkedIn users, according to the site, check the profile of a potential connection before deciding how to respond to that person’s request. If the profile is incomplete, the other person is more likely to think you are a bot, not a fellow professional.

Make sure your LinkedIn profile is complete, with a headline, summary, professional-looking headshot and a summary of your experience. Endorsements also go a long way toward building your LinkedIn profile credibility.

You didn’t send a personalized message.

Imagine walking up to someone at a professional conference and saying, “I’d like to add you to my professional network.” They’d probably look confused, and for good reason.

Relying on LinkedIn’s generic request is the equivalent of asking someone to be your friend without even introducing yourself. Let the other person know who you are and what made you interested in connecting with them. Even one or two lines of introduction is enough to build rapport and greatly increases the chances of the other person accepting your connection request.

Your profile or message uses too much “text-speak.”

Misspellings, internet abbreviations, lack of punctuation, missing capitals…. These all play important linguistic roles in texts and casual internet chatter, but in a LinkedIn request, all they say is you’re unaware of the conventions of professional, polite business conversation. Focus on using the conventions of standard written English, and double-check to make sure you’ve spelled the recipient’s name correctly.

At SMR Group Ltd, our recruiters specialize in connecting sales and marketing professionals to some of the best available jobs and employers in the biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Contact us today to learn more about using LinkedIn.


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