The Truth About Connecting on LinkedIn

The article below is going to come across as very subjective. Knowing this, I want to start by saying that I do not believe there is any perfect way to connect on LinkedIn. Some people accept all invitations, others curate their network with only those they personally know. No one is obligated to follow the lead of anyone else. Cool? Good. Then we can get started.

I am a recruiter for one of the largest companies in the world. Due to this I get a ton of connection requests. In December I realize I had about 300 I had to respond to so instead of just going through them, I decided to collect some data to see who was connecting with me and how.

Here is the data I decided to collect out of 1,024 connection requests from December to February:

• How many requests included personalized messages
• How many requests came from people with mutual connections
• How many people hid their profile photo
• How many people had 'open to work' banner

The reason I chose these categories is because each one plays a role in whether or not I accept a connection request.

Let's start off with the one I would consider least impactful: Profile photo

The reason why this could have an impact is because subconsciously we all want to make sure we are connecting with a real person. Seeing someone's photo provides a layer of comfort, even if it is only in the subconscious mind that they are not someone simply looking to 'scam' you. The reason this is less important is because LinkedIn allows people to hide their photo's for a variety of reasons and those photo's can appear once a connection is made. Going in, I really had no expectation of what the data would show but in my findings only 3% of the 1,024 people (32 people) did not have a visible photo. What this indicates to me is that on a professional platform, the overwhelming majority feel safe showing who they are. Given how much attention has been paid in the last few years to 'catfishing' etc, I believe it is a compliment to LinkedIn and by extension, Microsoft that people trust them.

The next data point was the 'open to work banner.'

Last Month, former recruiter and top resume writer and coach, Angela Watts wrote an article on the impact the 'open to work' banner has on the job search. See Below.

I contributed to the article and as such had a vested interest in seeing what the data stated. I also had an assumption based on my social media platform and profession that I would see an extremely high percentage of requests come from those with the banner. To my surprise, only 19.59% or 201 requests came from this demographic. While this may seem like a large number to others, my bet would have been that the percentage would have been closer to 50%. I say this knowing that there is a large split in opinion of those that think the banner is beneficial so not have the banner does not mean you are not open to work, but that is still a very low number to me.

My gut instinct based on these results is that there was more of an emphasis at the start of the pandemic when the state of the job market was more in the air with the banner, than now when we have more of a pulse on what to expect from companies and how many jobs they have to fill.

This brings us to mutual connections. The importance of mutual connections is not going to be the same for everyone but it is of EXTREMELY high importance for me. One of the dangers in accepting someone with no mutual connections is you do not know where they are finding you and for what purpose. Knowing people in common, much like the profile photo, gives an extra layer of comfort. Of the 1,024 connection requests, 14.50% did not have any connections in common, which amounts to 149 people. Instead of going through my personal opinion on this here, I will touch on this later on.

Finally, the last data point, how many people sent personal messages connection requests. This was the single most important item I wanted to get from this experiment and 95% of the reason I did it in the first place. In a time when informational interviews and networking lead to over 70% of jobs placed, not having a message when you are job seeking and looking for that potential connection to help you is a serious risk.

Before I give you the statistics, and prior to getting crucified by my audience...I hear you. I know that a large percentage of people use LinkedIn from their cell phones. I know this makes it more difficult to send detailed invites. In fact, I am very aware many may not even know you can send a personal invite from your cell phone.

Therefore, here is how you do it.

1. Go to your network and look for connections. To the right you can see LeVar Burton, who I am clearly not connected to. The first step in sending a personal message is to click 'View full profile.'

2. Once on full profile, to the right of, 'follow' is three dots. Click that.

3. Click 'Personalize Invite' This will allow you to send a message with your connection request.

Seeing how this is clearly something that can and should be simplified by the LinkedIn team, I will put an asterisk on the personalized messages, yet, even with the asterisk only 9.86% or 104 requests included personalized messages. How much the difficulty in sending messages is hard to account for but even if I assume 25% would have included messages if accounting for ease of use, that is an EXTREMELY low amount all considered.

Rather than provide judgement on how people choose to connect, here is exactly how I go through my connection requests in deciding who to accept into my network (LinkedIn has a max capacity of 30,000 connections).

When I have a large list the most important factors for me are those messages and mutual connections. In both situations, just having them doesn't mean anything if it is not quality. What do I mean by that? Well it is fairly simple. If you send me a message and say, 'get me a job' or make an ask that shows you have not taken a moment to go through my profile to see what I specialize in and what I can and can not help with, I am not likely to connect with you. I want to see that you have spent the time and are intentional about the connection. I have also had people that have clearly sent me a templated message. I can not tell you how many times I've gotten something that either has the wrong name or wrong company. Yes, Google is a FANTASTIC company, but NO I do not work for them.

The best way to get my attention in a message is through humility and genuine interest. I don't need you to tell me how much you appreciate my posts or what I do, but if you can tell me your unique value proposition or how you can see me helping you, I am much more likely to respond.

As far as mutual connections go, I have over 9,000 connections. I do not claim to personally know every single of those 9,000. Having a lot of people in common is great and certainly increases the odds of me accepting if there is no message but it is no guarantee. I look for those in my inner circle that I know connect deliberately and if you have those people in common there is a HIGH likelihood I will accept. As an example, if Claire Davis, Michele Olivier or Tracy Borreson is in your network, there is a 99.9999% chance I will connect.

To recap, first I look for a message. If no message is provided, I go straight to mutual connections. If someone in my inner circle is there, I immediately accept. If not, I will check company, profile and activity. This gives me insight into who you are. I tend to delay accepting in these situations because I take time to go through the information prior to making a decision.

There are very few situations I outright reject requests but the vast majority come from those that have nothing in their profile, are part of known MLMs or are clear scams.

In summary, I know how hard job seeking can be. The reason I provide this data is because I want to see people find the jobs that they deserve. Even though I know things like personal invitations take extra effort, when you look at the return on your time as compared to sending out thousands of job applications that go nowhere, I do believe it is information that needs to be stated and heard. The more you, as a job seeker are able to cultivate your network by being intentional, the more likely you are to meet someone that can be a direct connection to the job of your dreams.

Until next time.