Personalized LinkedIn Invitations vs Standard Copy

LinkedIn offers the ability for us to customize invitations to connect and makes available features (online and mobile) that will fire off a standard “I’d like to add you to my professional network” invitation. Which should you do?

The debates rage fast, passionately, and furiously. One LinkedIn group discussion that I’m following has over 450 comments and growing. I have seen online discussions and in-person debates on this topic stop just shy of fisticuffs!

Advocates for custom invitations will passionately cite a number of reasons:

1. If you care about connecting with someone, you should care about the content of the LinkedIn invitation.
2. Personalized invitations separate you from the masses. It matters.
3. Customizing the LinkedIn invitation to connect is a sign you are a professional.
4. The odds of people accepting your invitation are increased by customizing and personalizing the LinkedIn invitation.
5. I never accept generic invitations. Never.

Advocates for using the generic invitation will cite, with equal passion, reasons such as these:

1. The LinkedIn functionality, especially the mobile app, makes it difficult to stop and personalize connection requests.
2. People whom you know do not expect a unique request.
3. The nature of LinkedIn and other social networks implies that you’ll be connecting with people you know, so why should you have to promote yourself for a connection?
4. It’s too much work for the return.
5. It’s the person, not the invitation, that matters.

If you get 3 professionals in the same room and ask for an opinion on any practice, you’ll likely get 4 opinions.

In my world, these groups are both right—sort of.

Here’s why I don’t think it is wise to insist on custom LinkedIn invitations.

LinkedIn is a professional social network. Like all social networks, things are not yet standardized. The industry as a whole is still embryonic. Even the few commonly accepted etiquette practices for social media often vary between platforms. LinkedIn is charting all new territory. Never has there been a widely adopted and successful professional platform for networking and connecting, and this one is only a few years old.

If you get three professionals in the same room and ask for an opinion on any practice, you’ll likely get 4 opinions. (Yes. That was funny.) Opinions among social marketing professionals vary on this topic, so how can we expect a standard behavior to reign supreme. Although we can, and should, speak in terms of best practices—recommending a personalized invite because of the current data on higher acceptance rates—we shouldn't expect everyone to oblige our preferences. Some folks are just not familiar with best practices. If we’re honest, we’re all learning.

Therefore, if you’re sending an invite to connect on LinkedIn, when possible, personalize it. I’ll often take a snippet of information from the content of someone’s summary or education (there is always a school to share allegiance with or hostility toward) and include it in the invite. I might just remind them of when and where we met or of a common connection. If you are receiving an invitation for a connection, take a breath and give the sender a break. If they personalized the request, great. If they didn't, and you feel the need to personalize the connection, write them back and ask for more information; a simple note will suffice.

“Thank you for the request to connect on LinkedIn. I know people have different levels of expectation on connecting on LinkedIn. I try to connect with people I know or who have a possible need for my services. Your request didn't mention why you wanted to connect. Would you mind giving me more details?”

LinkedIn is an evolving Social network and like all new and changing technologies, we need to work with tolerance and patience as best practices become more…practiced.