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Posted: 2006-01-03 / Author: Marcia Yudkin
How To Use Linked InHow to Use Linked In: Like me, have you received email invitations like these?
I'm using LinkedIn to keep up with my professional contacts
and help them with introductions. Since you are one of the
people I recommend, I wanted to invite you to access my network
on LinkedIn.
Basic membership is free, and it takes less than a minute to
sign up and join my network.
I've received well over 35 invitations like this, worded almost
precisely the same way. The senders have acted surprised and
offended that I did not leap to take advantage of this
invitation.
Let's look at the problems in this invitation from a marketing
point of view.
* Almost all of the invitations I received were from people
whose names I did not recognize. Why would I want to be part of
their network? The invitation doesn't say who they are, who they
have access to and how I would benefit from their network.
* What is Linked In, how does it work and what are the benefits
of using it? No one has yet explained this clearly in their
invitation. You cannot expect that someone receiving this
invitation understands what you're asking them to join or how
it would be advantageous to them. It would be helpful to have a
paragraph or two describing how it works and citing a specific
result the person behind the invitation enjoyed from
membership. It may be that people assume that since "basic
membership is free," the typical recipient of this invitation
will go ahead and join. But even if it doesn't cost money,
joining would take time. You still need to "sell" people on
taking a free action, especially with respect to an activity or
organization that may be unfamiliar to them.
* No one took the time to head off possible misunderstandings
or objections to this membership. As a non-member of Linked In,
I am concerned that joining would open me up to a lot of email
and phone calls in which I would have no interest and that
would waste my time. Again, you can't assume that something
free is thereby enticing; you need to imagine why someone might
have doubts or dismiss the idea and address those objections.
* Using a canned invitation that is almost exactly the same as
everyone else's doesn't make a good impression. Even if the
text provided by Linked In were effective, which it's not,
you'd want to give it your personal stamp.
Other than being irritated that they are apparently encouraging
people to send invitations that make little sense, I have
nothing against Linked In. Perhaps it's a useful organization.
My point is that its members need to use common sense and
fundamental marketing principles to encourage busy, skeptical
people to give it a chance.
About The Author: Marcia Yudkin (marcia@yudkin.com) is the
author of 6 Steps to Free Publicity, Persuading on Paper, Web
Site Marketing Makeover and other books on business
communication. Sign up for her free weekly newsletter on
creative marketing at http://www.yudkin.com/marksynd.htm
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