The underpinnings of any social network revolve around the interactions.
By personalizing those interactions, we share a little about ourselves and make connections.
For all the things that are great about LinkedIn – there are plenty, not the least being pulling other social feeds into one’s profile – it defies logic that LinkedIn encourages impersonal interactions by defaulting to a boilerplate when someone sends a let’s-connect message on the platform.
Here’s an example of the boilerplate that arrives in my inbox 90+ percent of the time.
Not exactly brimming with a personal touch.
If I was Reid Hoffman (not related, but open to offers on www.hoffman.com), I would simply leave the box blank, prompting the sender to write a personalized note.
What a concept.
In such a scenario, Mr. Gladwell might have written the following:
How hard is it to start with the person’s name?
Even if you don’t write for a living, crafting such a note takes less than 120 seconds.
120 seconds for a personalized let’s-connect note on LinkedIn.
Seems like a reasonable ROI.