Are You LinkedOut?

Exploring the depth of this powerful and time saving virtual meeting place, will serve any business owner or entrepreneur well as you can easily build and manage a powerful network.

LinkedIn is a winning social media tool for business networking, but if you think about your activity and interactions on LinkedIn in the context of a physical networking event, you’ll quickly see how easy it is to make a faux pas.

You don’t want to be viewed as a rude networker, so here are seven things to never do on LinkedIn. Follow them diligently and you can meet wonderful people and propel yourself down the path to success.

Seven things to never do on LinkedIn

  1. Don’t allow your profile to sit inactive. Even if you are not LinkedIn savvy make sure you include a personal photo, headline, description of your services and post content. Even if you only put on an update once a week, keep it alive.
  2. Try to avoid the temptation of sending a connection invitation and then, the minute they join your network, send them a request for them to introduce you to someone they know.
  3. Never ask people beyond your friends, colleagues, or clients, to endorse your skills on LinkedIn (including writing to them to say “I’ve endorsed your Skills – now you endorse mine!”) referrals and social proof is important but not at the cost of your integrity.
  4. Don’t send someone a connection invitation merely in order to hit them with a sales pitch the minute they join your network. Can you imagine pitching a sale once you’ve exchanged business cards at an event? Don’t invite people to connect with you in order to get their email address so you can add them to your newsletter subscriber list.
  5. Don’t connect with anyone using the standard templated message. It’s important that before you ask for a connection you learn about them individually (read their profile) and be ready to explain why they might connect with you.
  6. Join groups, post updates and offer value but don’t be self-indulgent. If you start a discussion or post a link, give value. Cold self-promotion impresses no one.