Hi

I've been monitoring my connection acceptance rate on LinkedIn over the last few months and I realised that I reject about 70% of the requests I receive. For various reasons, including receiving the same message from several different people, invites with no message at all and sales pitches in disguise.

I get bombarded with requests to connect every day and, while I'd like to grow my network, I'd rather have fewer meaningful connections than a large following of disinterested people. That is why I am so strict with the connection requests I accept and I also have a habit of removing connections to improve the quality of my feed.

Therefore, when I make a connection request, I try to put myself in the shoes of the person I'm reaching out to and assume that they are thinking on the same lines - quality over quantity. With that in mind, before I send out a connection request to someone, I go through the following steps:

1. Visit their profile to learn more about them and their work
2. Find some common ground: maybe we're both a coach, or we studied similar things, perhaps they speak a language that I speak (besides English), or we have a few connections in common. If I cannot find common ground, I ask myself if it's worth connecting with that person.
3. If the answer to the question above is yes, then I have a look at their activity on LinkedIn and see if I can add a meaningful comment to one of their posts or articles. If they don't have activity on LinkedIn, then that's an indication that they are either not using the platform, or they are a lurker.
4. If I can find common ground and I'm able to interact with their activity on the platform, once they respond or interact back, I send them a personalised message and invite them to connect.
5. If I cannot find common ground and there is no content to interact with, I look at our mutual connections to see if there is someone I know who can make an introduction. This is only if I have a very specific reason for contacting that person. If I just want to connect, then I will send them a personalised message mentioning a few people we both know or are connected with.

Note: the personalised message doesn't mention my services or how I can help others. It contains information I have gathered during my research on the basis of which I believe this person and I should connect.

With this approach, more than 80% of the connection requests I send out are accepted and lead to meaningful conversations because I've made an effort and it shows.

Does this mean that I am able to send fewer requests than if I were to blindly push the connect button? Without a doubt. But the quality of the relationships I can build after making a meaningful connection with someone is worth it. Quality over quantity.

How do you approach connecting with people on LinkedIn? I hope this offers some inspiration and, as always, please send any questions or comments via reply. I love hearing from you.

Until next time, stay savvy.

Alisa