Ughh, why won’t people write back to meeee?!
These recruiters are just plain rude, and they don’t really care. I’m just a number.
I’ve reached out to people, but they ignore me. What’s the deal?
How could they NOT have written back?
You name it, I’ve heard it; job-seekers, colleagues, and even business professionals complaining about not getting what they want from LinkedIn. Not getting the results they’re after.
Recruiters aren’t writing back. Business prospects are ignoring you. Colleagues are silent.
What’s the friggin’ deal, here?
Everything I’ve learned about LinkedIn (and getting results) has been through experience — trial and error, essentially. During my 5 years of learning, navigating, and attempting to dominate this beast (yes, YOU, LinkedIn), I’ve figured out a few golden nuggets of wisdom along the way.
But first, a story:
You’re at your desk navigating through one of the, like, three hundred and eighty-seven things you have on your plate today. Gah, could this day get any crazier!
After about an hour you decide to take a quick breather and check your LinkedIn to see what’s happenin’ in your world. THREE messages.
Oooh! I hope one of ’em is that dude I reached out to for coffee yesterday. That’d be nice.
You open up your message box to scan through, and you notice two of them are from unfamiliar names. You never know who they might be, so sure, you’ll at least open them up.
You open the first one from, let’s call her, Penelope, (albeit reluctantly) with the subject reading “WE NEED YOUR HELP!”
This should be interesting…
You then proceed to see an unwieldy-looking block of text that’s gonna take FAR too long to read through, and even though she/they might need your help (or your money, for that matter) “ain’t nobody got time ‘fo ‘dat”. Oh, and she didn’t use your name either.
The next subject line reads, “Hello”. Well, that’s amazingly unoriginal. And you open it up to find this guy, let’s call him, Leopold, wrote you a shorter, easier to read message.
Thank you, Leopold!
Leopold says, “Hello! It looks like yuo worked at a company I’d like to work at. I’d like to see how you might be able to help me get my foot in the door. Thanx.”
REALLY, GUY?! You just think I’m gonna help you get your foot in the door? I don’t even know you and you’re already asking me for favors? Maybe if you had used spell-check.
You decide to check out his profile to see what he’s all about. Hmmm…not much goin’ on here, Leopold. Better luck next time. I’d better get back to my to-do list.
You exit LinkedIn, not having written back to either of those two (maybe tomorrow?). And you don’t feel the least bit bad about it because…I’ve got my reasons.
Any of that ring a bell for you? Or maybe some of you are thinking about a time you wrote a message like these two. (I’ve done it before, no worries. You live and learn, right?)
While I may not be able to answer the “what’s the deal?” question in complete totality for everyone reading this, I’m 100% certain I’ve got a few solid reasons why things aren’t happening for you (or others you know) and how you can begin to remedy (or help others to remedy) them, TODAY.
Ready? Here goes:
1. Your profile is lame.
I really do mean this in the nicest way possible. Sometimes, especially when you’re a LinkedIn newbie, your profile just isn’t up to par with what it could be – and that can REALLY hurt you. Your profile should include the very best of you. The pieces of you that mean the most – your strengths, your accomplishments, your skills, expertise and experiences, and the amazing things you’ve helped other companies do to become successful. It should include recommendations from your peers, supervisors, co-workers, teachers, and anyone else who knows how bombdotcom (yes, that’s a word. MY word) you are.
Last thing: your profile photo should NOT include any of the following: your spouse, your fat cat, your children, your parrot (I’ve seen it all, guys), your car, your cleavage (ladies, that’s for you) or your new Ray Bans. AND please try your hardest not to use a selfie. Selfie’s are meant for Facebook & Instagram, folks. If you want people to trust and take you seriously, get a professional photo, pronto.
Note: If you don’t have the means to get a professional photo done, recruit one of your friends with a nice camera to take you out into the desert and take some pics. (That’s what I did.) And hey, it turned out pretty good! Get creative with it.
2. Your approach is ALL wrong.
The examples I shared above are included in this category. The reason you didn’t write back in those cases is because of Penelope and Leopold’s AWFUL approaches, am I right? My recommendation here is to think about how YOU would like to be approached for the very reason you’re thinking about approaching someone. Ask yourself, “What would I want to hear? What kind of language would I like to see from someone I don’t yet know?” Better yet – think about the kind of messages you wriggle in your skin thinking about receiving from people. What approaches make you cringe? Make you mad? Make you wanna scream? Think about these things before you begin writing AND after. Read what you wrote out loud multiple times. Reading my messages out loud to myself (including important emails) helps me immensely in making sure I’m keeping in line with my brand, with my intended approach, and sets me up to receive the outcome I’m hoping for, which ever that may be.
Tips for your next approach:
- Use what I call, the K.I.S.S.D Principle – Keep It Simple, Strategic, & Direct
- Make sure they know WHY you’re reaching out and WHY they should care.
- Be positive, kind, and appreciative – EVERY SINGLE TIME.
- Don’t make people feel like they’re just another number.
- SPELL-CHECK. GRAMMAR CHECK. ALL. THE. TIME
3. You haven’t yet built mutually beneficial relationships.
I know what some of you are thinking.
What does that even mean? I don’t have that kind of time, Dayna!
A mutually beneficial relationship doesn’t mean you’ve bent over backwards or spent hours and hours or months building a “bestie” type of relationship. It just means that you’ve done what you can to build initial rapport, trust, and understanding of how you can benefit one another in big or small ways. A simple way you can start building this is by taking every opportunity possible to help your connections. That could be as simple as sharing a status update of theirs to spread their message. It could be replying to the question your connection posted in a Group you’re both in, giving advice or connection to a person who can help them. LOTS of ways to do this.
What goes around comes around, people! I’m a BIG believer in Karma, and you should be too. She’ll get’cha if you’re not careful.
The Law of Reciprocity comes in to play here. You help others, they’ll help you. Now, you should NEVER help someone JUST to make sure they’ll help you. Learn to help others (whether you want/need something from them or not) every chance you get without knowing if/what you’ll get in return, and positive things will happen for you as well. It’s just how it works!
Well, there you have it. Hopefully, you’ve got a solid understanding of why you (or whoever you know that’s been complaining about it) may not be getting what you want out of LinkedIn and will use the tips I’ve shared with you to get more of what you’re going after. My intention is not to offend anyone with what I’ve shared, but instead to empower you to change your methods, change your thinking, and change what you’ll do from now on during your interactions with others.
If you found this information valuable, surely others will too – share away! I’d LOVE that.
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Wishing you all of the success you’re dreaming of out there. You deserve it!
Now – I want to hear from YOU!
What other methods have YOU found that work in making LinkedIn work for you?
Let’s help each other out, here! Hope to hear from you soon.
Keep Kickin’ Ass My Friends,
Dayna
The C.L.A.B.A Room 