Relationships are important. How they are created is important, too. Throwing a stack of business cards into a room full of people is not what I consider a productive way to create strong relationships, yet that’s the approach used by many on social media.

LinkedIn is a very good social media platform for stakeholders of Federal Contracting. I have had a LinkedIn profile since the year it launched, and have seen my segment of interest become much more robust. A good friend of mine, known as the Godfather of Government Marketing, talks about, writes about, and teaches about leveraging it to create visibility and engage with suspects and prospects. He also reports on the number of Federal Agency company pages, employees and FTE’s (full time equivalent’s) present on LinkedIn. It’s quite a bit. Through Ethical Stalking for Government Contractors® Bootcamp, I talk about, write about, and teach about LinkedIn to support Market Research and Business Development efforts, based on the availability of Federal Agency company pages, employees, FTE’s and the companies and people supporting the Government.

I enjoy LinkedIn as a tool. I can’t make that statement about other social media platforms because I don’t willingly use any others, anymore. And, I only use LinkedIn professionally. What does that mean to me? It means personal social networking occured on Facebook, until I decided I was no longer a good fit for it. It means I don’t connect on LinkedIn, with family, friends and colleagues who are not associated with my professional interests. It also means I require live engagement with someone prior to accepting (or sending) a LinkedInvitation. Yeah, I was having a little fun with the wordplay there, and it’s in urbandictionary.com.

Here’s the point of this piece. Why do we send LinkedInvites? Is there a specific outcome we are seeking? Is there intent or strategy in effect, when we send an invite? Are we doing it for personal or professional reasons, or both?

To me, the only wrong way is if it does not work for you based on your intent. What works for me may not work for someone else, and that’s okay. Part of the motivation for penning this is the fact I am not a fan of what appears to be an indiscriminate “fire and forget” approach to sending invites. It seems some senders don’t remember what invitations they sent. I say this because I respond to every invite with an invitation of my own. An invitation to have a chat by phone, Zoom or Teams, that is. The results vary. I receive many responses, several commenting and complimenting me on my approach. In some cases, there is no response, and in other cases, much time passes before I receive a response. By this, I mean weeks. In my system, invitations have a shelf-life. When that time lapses, I simply ignore the request. This does no harm to anyone, but it does clear out my LinkedIn Inbox. 

My rationale is simple. If the sender did not have time or interest related to my response, I take that as a sign. Mind you, this is my interpretation based on having experimented with many approaches over many years on LinkedIn. The same rule applies for when I send an invite. No response to my note/invitation, and I withdraw my invite. For additional context, this doesn’t happen much since I tend to only send invites to referrals and folks I have already met or have corresponded with.

As an aside, I may consider the fact I have common connections with someone, but in no way is it a deciding factor nor a replacement for a conversation. This is what works for me.

What’s your approach? Are our strategies similar or different? Remember, different doesn’t mean wrong, it just means different. Thanks!

Peace, Health, and Success,

For a PDF of this blog click here.