Unlike the cold emails above, commenting on a person’s posts is inherently more conversational. I made a point to only ever comment if I genuinely had something thoughtful to contribute.” You can totally feel that and it’s offensive. He observes that authenticity is key to cold outreach: “I didn’t want to be seen as fake and trying to get something from you. In a prior article, filmmaker Bryce McNabb, shared how he networks on LinkedIn by commenting on posts. Let’s look at some real examples of networking experiences that received responses. How can you make the person you want to connect with feel seen and understood? This is the scenario you want to create when networking on LinkedIn. What was so pleasant about that interaction? You felt seen and understood. When it’s time to go through security, you part ways smiling. You discover you both travel frequently for your jobs and you trade tips on which airports have the best food choices. Think of a time when you were waiting in line at the airport and you struck up a conversation with the person in front you. The Secret to Successful Online Networking Don’t be self-deprecating, apologizing for bothering the person.Don’t be pompous, listing your accomplishments and your personal assistants.If someone were to respond to this LinkedIn message, what would the phone call even be about?įrom these three examples, we’ve learned what not to do: The third failure is the call to action, “Would you have time for a call?” is as vague and meaningless as the sender’s flattery. Why would someone want to connect with a person who seems to value their own potential so poorly? While humility is a virtue that helps people connect, proverbially slouching through LinkedIn removes any joy or desire for connection. The second failure (beyond the poor grammar and run-on sentences) is that the self-deprecation raises red flags. What is so incredible? How has the sender come across this wealth of knowledge? What on earth is she talking about? “You are incredible” and “You are a wealth of knowledge” fail as flattery because there’s no follow up with specification. In this message, the sender again fails to make a convincing case that they know anything about the person she is trying to connect with. My story is one of great sadness and over doing. We are all human however when I started to write this I hesitated multiple times. This one attempts to be more conversational and makes gestures toward personalization, but it is just as poorly received as the prior messages. Let’s look at one more example of a failed cold outreach email. Who would want to respond to this message? What’s more, the message is shallow it’s likely this exact message was probably sent to every other person on LinkedIn who has used the keyword “storytelling” in their bio. I need X, you have X, I’ve got credentials, so give me X. Their website, their degrees, their podcast, their interests. The rest of the message is all about the sender. It’s almost like saying, “We both ate breakfast this morning, so we have a lot in common.” And then, painfully, it only gets worse from there. The first sentence, even though awkwardly phrased, does make an attempt to show some connection between the sender and recipient, but it’s vague.
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