LinkedIn wants to assure they keep the spammers out of their system. Thus they put in place many safe guards. One of them being the "I Don't Know" you button in response to receiving an invite. It only takes 5 people to click this button to get your account locked. To get your account unlocked you'll need to click the link at the button of a LinkedIn page for Customer Service and submit a question to plead your case. Realize that once you are this situation you are at LinkedIn's mercy and it will take a while, probably days, to get a response.
Once you do get unlocked you're going to need to be extremely careful as they may not unlock you a second time. Once unlocked, you may even want to withdraw old invitations to reduce the risk of getting locked out of LinkedIn a second time.
When you wish to establish a connection on LinkedIn. It would be best to contact the person outside of LinkedIn (in person, telephone, email) and ask if they are open to receiving a LinkedIn invite. However, if you've lost touch and don't have any way of contacting the person outside of LinkedIn you should customized the text of the invitation. Realize that you may remember the person better then they remember you. Thus it is best to send a personalized message reminding the person how you know each other. You certainly shouldn't write a book, but you should mention not only the company, school or organization, but also some details to help refresh their memory. For example, I once worked on many different projects in a company with over 100K employees. Somebody saying they know me from that company might not help me recall them!
Another best practice is to never use the default canned invite message. Doing such seems to indicate an impersonal attempt to establish a connection, that might not to develop into a warm trusted relationship. Considering that you did not take the time to personalized your invitation.
LinkedIn makes it easy to import your E-mail address book from many different sources. Once LinkedIn has your address book you can broadcast invites to all or a selection of the imported list. This is how people often get their accounts locked, because they don't realize the number of people they have in their address book that are just acquaintances that will likely press the "I Don't Know" you button. Although this is import feature may be a quick and easy way to build your network on LinkedIn it is very dangerous due to the risk of getting your account locked, but in addition you're blasting a generic impersonal message to everybody as well.
It may be time consuming, but connecting with one individual at a time in a personalized custom manner is always a best practice of professional networking. The investment in time is well worth the rewards you'll receive in the future, from your warm trusted network.
You may also wish to review a blog post on this topic by my friend Jason Alba at "I Don't Know You (OUCH!)".
Once you do get unlocked you're going to need to be extremely careful as they may not unlock you a second time. Once unlocked, you may even want to withdraw old invitations to reduce the risk of getting locked out of LinkedIn a second time.
When you wish to establish a connection on LinkedIn. It would be best to contact the person outside of LinkedIn (in person, telephone, email) and ask if they are open to receiving a LinkedIn invite. However, if you've lost touch and don't have any way of contacting the person outside of LinkedIn you should customized the text of the invitation. Realize that you may remember the person better then they remember you. Thus it is best to send a personalized message reminding the person how you know each other. You certainly shouldn't write a book, but you should mention not only the company, school or organization, but also some details to help refresh their memory. For example, I once worked on many different projects in a company with over 100K employees. Somebody saying they know me from that company might not help me recall them!
Another best practice is to never use the default canned invite message. Doing such seems to indicate an impersonal attempt to establish a connection, that might not to develop into a warm trusted relationship. Considering that you did not take the time to personalized your invitation.
LinkedIn makes it easy to import your E-mail address book from many different sources. Once LinkedIn has your address book you can broadcast invites to all or a selection of the imported list. This is how people often get their accounts locked, because they don't realize the number of people they have in their address book that are just acquaintances that will likely press the "I Don't Know" you button. Although this is import feature may be a quick and easy way to build your network on LinkedIn it is very dangerous due to the risk of getting your account locked, but in addition you're blasting a generic impersonal message to everybody as well.
It may be time consuming, but connecting with one individual at a time in a personalized custom manner is always a best practice of professional networking. The investment in time is well worth the rewards you'll receive in the future, from your warm trusted network.
You may also wish to review a blog post on this topic by my friend Jason Alba at "I Don't Know You (OUCH!)".
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