“Hi Generic Person, I’d Like to Connect with You on LinkedIn”

LinkedIn is a fantastic tool. That being said, almost everyone who uses it consistently makes one huge mistake: They don’t send personalized connection requests.

One of the most important habits to develop when using LinkedIn is customizing your connection requests. Yes, it’s much easier to just hit send on the automated option, “Hi _____, I’d like to connect with you on LinkedIn,” but that doesn’t make you memorable. In fact, it makes you seem lazy. Even when you’re connecting with someone you already know pretty well, it shows that you are willing to put in a small extra effort when you write something personal.

Even more importantly, let’s say that you are a finance major and want to connect with an Isenberg alum who works at a financial firm in Boston. You’ve never met her, but you are interested in learning more about her experience and time at the company. You could either send her LinkedIn’s generic message and cross your fingers that she will accept anyway, or you could write a short message introducing yourself and explaining why you’d like to connect with her. I can guarantee you the latter choice will prove more effective. Very few people will accept a request from someone they don’t know if there is no indication in the request of who they are and why they’d like to connect.

By the way: LinkedIn used to only allow personalized invitations through its desktop site, but not its mobile application. The generic message was something along the lines of “You are someone I trust and I would like to connect with you”. LinkedIn’s mobile app now allows you to write personalized requests!