LinkedIn is one of the largest professional social media networking sites right now. But, with the increasing number of users every day, degrading the quality of the content on it. The users have almost doubled in the last 10 years which is 500 million right now! You should make the most of it.
By making mistakes on LinkedIn could actually harm your profile and results in losing good connections.
Here is the of some serious mistake people make on LinkedIn to build their network. Mistake they can easily avoid.
#1 Adding irrelevant contact
Sending a request to people on LinkedIn, just to build the network or increase the number of connections. Most of the people who are new to LinkedIn follow this practice, they just see the others profile and blindly follow them. They are behind the numbers. 20,000 connections they write proudly on their profile headline. But tell me one thing? Does that number really entice you?
Solution
Being a social media expert for the last 6 years, I know all the ins and outs of it. Let me tell you one thing quality is more important than quality on LinkedIn especially. Adding wrong people can hamper the quality of your profile. With irrelevant people in your network, you can’t exchange the right information, or learn something helpful for your career.
“To ensure an optimal site experience, members can have a maximum of 30,000 1st-degree connections. We recommend that you only connect with individuals you know and trust, as outlined in the LinkedIn User Agreement.” – LinkedIn
See what kind of interest they have, what are the common skills you share.
Example
If you are from the software development profession, and adding the people from the music industry, or writer won’t help you build your profile and personal brand. Instead, if you are adding VPs, Tech leads would help you get better jobs, learning new skills, help you keep updated from the IT industry.
#2 Only ask for recommendation and skill endorsement to people you actually know and worked with
People ask for recommendations and skill endorsement on LinkedIn, even if they don’t really know that person. A few days ago I received a lot of requests from unknown people do give them recommendations or endorse some of their skills, I mean they are in my professional network, But I barely know them personally. How can I recommend or endorse someone I don’t really know?
Another thing is you can’t really ask for skill endorsement from the people you just added in the network, or you didn’t have any prior conversation with them on the common topic.
“According to LinkedIn’s own research, LinkedIn have seen a 73% increase in job recruitment usage.”
Solution
So before asking someone for a recommendation, please make sure you know that person really well, they know your work and skills. If you delivered a project recently, politely ask your client if they could write a short recommendation on your LinkedIn profile. Or simply if you worked really well on some project, you can ask your team lead, manager, or teammate to write a recommendation.
Start interacting with your connections, asking them something, sharing some knowledge with them, endorse their skills, take a genuine interest in their skills and experience. Praise people from heart, don’t just pretend that you like them. It helps you make good connections in the long term.
Example
I am a digital marketing corporate trainer, my trainees wrote a recommendation on my LinkedIn profile, once they completed the training successfully. I never asked them, I gave them the best experience and they shared the review. You have to be genuine when you ask for a recommendation. Make the customer happy and ask them to write a review, that will help you build a better profile.
Another example, if you got more than 100 skills endorsement on some skill but you don’t have any project mentioned or client recommendation for that skill, how would you authenticate that?
If you know someone for a long time and worked with them remotely and personally delivered some good work, then you can ask your professional network
#3 Sending invite without context
People send invites to other professionals without context or messaging. The professionals receive a lot of invites per day, why would they add you in their network? They don’t see your request, they just see the number of invites they received.
Solution
Add a thrilling message with context which explains, why you want to connect with them. It will give them a reason to view your profile, to see if you are worth adding to their network or not.
Let me explain:
Option – 1
“I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”
Option – 2
Hi Richa,
I saw the projects you did for XYZ Agency, and I’m impressed with your work. My business is looking to work on a similar strategy, and your skills would be a great help. Let me know if you’re interested in working together – I can be reached at [email protected].
Thanks,
Cora
Tell me which one would you prefer?
If you choose the second option, would you add that person to your profile or not?
Tips to get a positive response from the professionals on LinkedIn:
- You have to send a short, to the point message with the invitation.
- Always add their name in the message, just Hi or Hey doesn’t seem personal.
- The message should be very clear and answer the what and why.
- Add a personal touch by wishing them with some warm words.
- View their profile first before sending an invite to someone.
- When sending invite mention something about common skills.
#4 Sharing Old & Copied Information
Posting very old information articles, news or blog posts is really very harmful to your LinkedIn profile. Connections are not interested in watching what was trending last month. They want to see fresh content, new information with some good resource mentions.
Another mistake people making by posting someone else’s content without giving them credits. This is the most illegal practice you must avoid immediately. You can copy-paste other posts by just thinking people won’t find out. These days a lot of tools are available to detect it. The generation is really smart enough to figure out the ways.
And the most stupid mistake is using the wrong hashtags in the posts. LinkedIn started the feature where people can follow the hashtags to find the recent post around that subject. But some people using this feature for bad practice getting found. You can’t use wrong or irrelevant hashtags just to get more views on your post. Adding a bunch of hashtags here and there in the content might get you the views but no value.
According to the studies –
“3 million users share content weekly on LinkedIn. 91% of marketing executives list LinkedIn as the top place to find quality content. LinkedIn makes up more than 50% of all social traffic to B2B websites & blogs.”
The LinkedIn algorithm works differently as compared to Facebook and Twitter feeds. LinkedIn feed doesn’t show everything your network is posting by default. That’s because it’s only showing content it believes is relevant to you.
Source: Hubspot
Solution
Use Feedly, BuzzSumo social media listening tools to find the fresh content to share on LinkedIn. You can find trending topics as well with these tools. Always post relevant and recent content, articles, blog posts, videos, etc.
When you are sharing another person’s post to help them get more views, please share their post instead of copy-paste. If you loved some content and you don’t know the original source, post as anonymous. Give people credit for their post creativity and knowledge.
Use hashtag tools available online, you can find most searched hashtags in those tools. These tools help you find the right hashtags, with the insights, global ranking, industry, and relevancy.
#5 Long Introductory Notes
Sending long introductory notes with a lot of sales links embedded – Worst start! When professionals add people in their network, they immediately receive a long message, which very obviously seems copy-pasted, without name and context. With too many links and project and client details etc.
Why would somebody want to know immediately about your company? They connected to you, means they might have other things in their mind. You can’t just bombard someone with a sales message. It’s really bad practice.
Example
This can’t be your first interaction with your connection, right?
Hello Sir/Madam,
How is your day? Let me introduce myself,
I’m XYZ. I work for an online marketing company… a complete digital branding company…Here is a piece of brief information About my company
ABC is one of the topmost digital marketing company for more business growth. We started our services in 2009. till now, we have that no.1 brand mark in digital marketing services. We are proudly announcing that ABC is successfully providing digital marketing services to offshore, Malaysia, USA, Australia, and Canada. Utterly, We will give the assurance on keywords position if and only if you have taken our regular working process.
Our Services are: Digital marketing SEO (search engine optimization). SMO(Social media optimization). SMM(social media marketing). PPC(pay per click) management. Custom software development. Hospital management software. Educational management software.
For More Details Contact :.
Please check out my website and I am Eagerly waiting For Quick Response.
Visit us:website
Mail us: [email protected]
XYZ
Solution
If you want people to genuinely take an interest in your product or company then, You have to build a relationship.
- Simply start the conversation with a small introductory thank you message to add you in their network.
- Then you can ask some questions about the common skills you share with them.
- Giving them regards, wishing them for their achievements, will enhance your relationship with your connections.
- After that, you may ask them if you can help them in any manner, and then you can share some details about the product or services you could offer them.
The note you write should be crisp and clear, up to the points, because the people do not spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, so you have to deliver your purpose in a few sentences.
Example
Hi Richa,
I came across your profile on Linked and wanted to invite you as a guest on the XYZ webinar. There are more details in the doc attached, do let me know if you want to discuss this over a call.
Thanks!
Another example –
Richa,
We are a Product company in the Martech space and the role of Customer Success is to help enable customers with it. At this time the role does require working out of Mumbai. You can check out our positions on Angel.co for details.
I understand that at this time moving is not an option for you. But if things change on your end. Do reach out to me.
Regards, Manish
Conclusion
As social media users increasing every day, the quality of the usage of social media is degrading. One out of three professionals on the planet is on LinkedIn. People joined the professional social media site without knowing the actual benefits and how amazing it could be for their brand.
Fixing all these mistakes could help you build a healthy professional network and add more quality to your LinkedIn profile.
What mistake you found? Or if you have any tips to add please share in comment with us.
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