Most of us receive regular invites to connect with someone on one of the many and growing number of social media networks.

The majority come with the pretty standard invitation message.  Linked In, ReferralKey, Connect.me

Linked In in, like many others, allows you to send invites or connect with people you know.

Most people just use the standard “I’d like to add you to my professional network” but sometimes this creates a question in the mind of the receiver.

• Do I really know this person? (perhaps I do and I’ve forgotten)
• Have I done business with them? (don’t recognise them or their business name)
• Why have they indicated ‘friend’ and we’ve never met?

Linked In might be a bit limited in the choice of reasons to connect but it doesn’t stop you from changing the standard message to something a bit more personal.

“We met at x networking event ….”
“I enjoyed your recent talk, seminar, blog, podcast …”
“I’m interested in finding out more about …”

Give them a reason you’d like to connect and they’re more likely to Accept your invite.  It also helps to open up the conversation.  You might not know them but there might be a perfectly good reason and perhaps an opportunity in at least saying “Hello”.

Equally – if you receive an invite – it might be worth taking a few moments to clarify the reasons for their contact before automatically accepting – especially if you’re not sure who they are or can’t remember where you met them.

Send a personal message after you’ve accepted too – even “Thanks” is better than nothing.

So if you’d like to connect with me on Linked In – send me an invite, please do but make it personal and tell me why.