LinkedIn Etiquette - Connected, Read Message, No Response?
Hello WSO community!
I have been trying hard to network on LinkedIn and have made a few connections. But my problem is that they will read my connection message and not reply...
When is the appropriate amount of time to followup again?
Ex: Sunday, viewed an MD's profile but didn't add (not in my city). He quickly viewed mine after. So I added him as a connection - no note. He accepted this Morning. Sent him a note right after he accepted. He read the note...
Seems to happen a lot - please help!
Thank you!
BSP
Don't follow up. If they read the message, they consciously didn't reply. The harsh truth is that they just don't want to. Reach out to people lower in the hierarchy if you're looking for responses. Network in person at events rather than LinkedIn.
Hello Escobar Houdini! Thank you for replying.
QQ - I saw in threads that people followup using the professional email after they connect. What are your thoughts on that?
Thanks!
BSP
If a telemarketer called you on your cell phone and you don't answer but then he follows up with a call on home phone, will you be happy?
Linkedin Netiquette (Originally Posted: 01/30/2013)
I just created a Linkedin this week. Pretty much the sole reason I made it is to message potential contacts who don't have their email listed elsewhere. These are all alumni of the teaching program I'm doing (similar to Teach for America) or alumni from my school who didn't include an email address in their alumni database entry.
That said, how successful have people been with cold Linkedin messaging? Is there a different format that you should follow compared to email? Should I add them as a connection once I exchange some messages with them? Wait for them to add me?
The heads of the alumni association for my teaching program can't release the emails of people, but they can email them, tell them I'm interested in talking and hope they respond by sending me an email. Which way would be better? While I think email is more professional, would messaging them directly on Linkedin be more effective since the message comes directly from me?
Thanks in advance for any help.
This is how most people use LinkedIn to cold e-mail:
Look up professionals on LinkedIn by bank, region, country, alma mater, etc. If their full name does not appear, Google their first name and last initial with their title to find their full name. For example, for Jon D., an associate at Goldman Sachs, you would Google "Jon D. associate Goldman Sachs LinkedIn".
Find out their e-mail address.
Send them an e-mail asking for time.
^ Yea, email them instead by finding their email or plugging their name into tot company format. I wouldn't message them on LinkedIn, no one really checks those things, and a message over LinkedIn would probably have less on an impact on them than on their business email. Plus it could be intrusive to some.
Thanks so much for the advice guys.
As I'm a total Linkedin Noob, got some follow ups.
It seems like most of the people I find on Linkedin don't have their email visible unless I try to connect with them, not if we're in a group together (College alumni group for example). Is that normal, or am I not looking in the right place to try and find it?
I know about using the standard company format for email, but what do you say about how you figured out their email address?
"I was looking through XYZ college alumni and came across your profile. I saw we both majored in basketweaving so I wanted to see if you could offer any advice for breaking into the consulting field with that background." And then should you just leave out the fact that you're guessing on their email address? I feel like it's a little stalkerish to not find their email in a legitimate way, where as Linkedin, it is at least clear you got in contact with them.
What if they have a common name, for example Tom Smith, you might end up sending it to the wrong Tsmith or Tom.Smith@company?
So does this mean that I should ask the people from that alumni association to reach out for me rather than trying to reach out to these people through Linkedin?
Thanks again for all the help guys.
Has anyone been successful with messaging on Linkedin?
Bump
One last try
When I was doing this, I always found it difficult to locate their emails via LinkedIn as some choose not to post it. Mostly I located an executives email, saw the format and plugged in where I needed to.
Did you ever explain in the cold email how you found their email or were you ever asked about it?
I've never been asked the few times I didnt note where I got it but eventually I just began to vary it to a colleague passed it on, saw it on a job advert and LinkedIn. I think its not a major issue for the person where you got the email, especially to me, it seems like you made an effort.
What to do if they accept you on LinkedIn but don't reply back? (Originally Posted: 08/18/2017)
You know how LinkedIn gives you the option to include a short message with your invitation? I've sent those to a few people and had my connection requests accepted, the people have read the messages but never got back to me. Should I just drop them in this case or should I send a follow up message again given that they accepted me? Or will it be too pushy given that they never replied back to my message?
My issue is why accept me as a contact, read the message and then keep me as a connection if you never have the intention to reply.
I've found myself running into the same situation as you. My suggestion would be to follow the typical networking/cold email advice of following up with another message about a week or so later.
What would you say in the follow up message though? "AYYYYY, I noticed that you've seen my message and never replied back so I am messaging you again to have your attention"
Your follow-up response will depend on the content of your initial outreach message, sooo... post the message, dawg.
This. I've had great success getting people to connect by using a very short connection invite message (ex: "XYZ university student interested in learning about investment banking and ABC"). Very few will actually reply to my first message, but they do connect with me. So in this case, my follow up is a longer message where I say a bit more about how I found them and to schedule call.
I'd say no matter what your follow-up message includes, starting it along the lines of "Thank you for connecting with me a couple of days/weeks ago, body." is always a good way to go.
Edit: Like many people are saying, emailing is also great. Follow up with them via email, starting off by saying that you connected on LinkedIn a few days/weeks ago
Repeat after me: "I will not LinkedIn message bankers."
Hint: email them not message on Linkedin.
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