Spammers Never Prosper
Why:
Do you like spam? No. So why would you send spam? Don’t.
How:
Now that we have armed you with the amazing tool, LinkedIn, think of it as the world’s first hammer—the worst thing you can do is believe that everything is a nail. As you have seen, most of this book is about Dos, but here are a few Don’ts.
Content and communication only become spam when it is of no value to the receiver. To avoid spamming your connections, customers and prospects, avoid the following:
- Don’t post marketing messages as status updates—a good rule of thumb is 9 value filled status updates for every 1 update about yourself. Remember the best use of light is always to shine it on others, not yourself.
- Non-custom requests to people you don’t know. Too many people use the default connection request. Unless you know the person well—meaning you are 100% confident they will accept your request, then this is a big no-no. It’s best to customize every request. I did a test once and found some people were vehemently upset upon receiving a generic connection request from me.
- Sending long, unsolicited, sales pitch emails. Don’t transfer bad email practices over to LinkedIn—they will get the same result: annoying your potential customers.
- Posting a sales or self-promotional message inside a group before adding any value to the group. This doesn’t work and it tarnishes your name and your company’s name.
Check out Erik Qualman’s book How to Sell on LinkedIn for more.
