This needed to be said

by loriruff on March 24, 2010 · 12 comments

in Ask an Expert,LinkedIn,Social Media

Yesterday, I received yet another bulk email asking me and everyone else to send the person a LinkedIn invitation. Before you make the same mistake, please read my response below:

Dear ****:

You stated in your original email “Please note as i have exceeded my limit so i can send invitation through email, & once you send me invitation i ll be happy to accept”

The fact that you only have 2,624 connections, and that LinkedIn gives you 3,000 initial invitations leads me to believe that you either have sent a blast (like this one) or that you don’t understand how the system works.

I am responding to all so that everyone who may not be aware will learn also.

So here goes: LinkedIn grants every user a maximum of 3,000 invitations when they register. You are not aware of the limit until you’ve gone through 2,000, at which point you see a countdown of now many invitations you have left. Once you’ve exhausted your supply, you can send a request to LinkedIn to get more invitations every thirty days.

Although the concept of asking permission to send someone an invitation via email is polite, asking them to send you an invitation is not. You are in essence asking someone who doesn’t know you to buy you a cup of coffee.

Another misperception is when you are required to enter an email address to send an invitation. That means that 7 people have indicated in response to your invitations that they didn’t know you. This usually happens when you upload a large database of unrelated people to send invites in bulk. If you send an email to LinkedIn Customer Service [linkedin_support@cs.linkedin.com] – you can ask for the restriction to be removed.

Finally, when you send a group email like this one, please protect other people’s identity and communications by using blind carbon copy (BCC). Again, in the business world, it is considered rude not to do so.

I hope I’ve helped. Please let me know if you have any questions. Feel free to visit our blogs at http://www.rocktheworldbook.com/blog or http://www.integratedblog.com

Best regards,

Lori Ruff | Chief Learning Officer
Lead Social Media Consultant, Speaker, Trainer & Author
IA Social Media | Phone (303) 683-9600
LinkedIn Professional Profile: www.LoriRuff.com
Social Media Presence: www.xeesm.com/LoriRuff
Co-Author: http://www.RockTheWorldBook.com

Tagged as: LinkedIn, LinkedIn Expert, LinkedIn Network, Network Building, Social Media, TopLinked.com

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  • http://www.youtube.com/carloscanteri Carlos Canteri

    Hi, Lori! How are you doing?

    This is Carlos Canteri, from twitter.
    I´m 24 years old, musician, singer/songwriter. I´ve been studying music for quite long time, since I was 12. I´m also, graduated in Law.

    Used to live in Los Angeles/CA, studying and touring with a friend, showing the songs live. Hard times, but I always was conscient about my goal in life, talent, my family, and this kept the balance inside of me.

    Actually, I live in Southern Brazil, city called Curitiba, close to Sao Paulo. I work as a Judge Advisor, also I´m a member from Rotary International, the youngest one in my District.

    I´ve all legal documents to go now and then to US. I´ve family living in NYC too.

    I´ve a contract with Quickstar Productions/Red/Sony Music (USA) to release my EP called Essences.

    I´ve a song released in US and France, it´s called “See Around”.
    Amazon ( France).
    http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B0032FVNDS/ref=dm_dp_trk16/280-5567954-5250468

    My first dream is tour US again, and then eventually have a record deal, producer, etc.

    Music is my life, my thing, my creativity!

    The style could be anything in between Pop, Acoustic, Rock, Jazz or Bossa Nova.

    Here are some links of my work:
    http://www.youtube.com/carloscanteri
    http://www.myspace.com/carloscanteri
    http://www.twitter.com/ccanteri

    Hopefully, we can help each other, knowing that I´m very serious about music and life.

    Thanks , Peace always,
    Carlos Canteri

  • http://www.youtube.com/carloscanteri Carlos Canteri

    Hi, Lori! How are you doing?

    This is Carlos Canteri, from twitter.
    I´m 24 years old, musician, singer/songwriter. I´ve been studying music for quite long time, since I was 12. I´m also, graduated in Law.

    Used to live in Los Angeles/CA, studying and touring with a friend, showing the songs live. Hard times, but I always was conscient about my goal in life, talent, my family, and this kept the balance inside of me.

    Actually, I live in Southern Brazil, city called Curitiba, close to Sao Paulo. I work as a Judge Advisor, also I´m a member from Rotary International, the youngest one in my District.

    I´ve all legal documents to go now and then to US. I´ve family living in NYC too.

    I´ve a contract with Quickstar Productions/Red/Sony Music (USA) to release my EP called Essences.

    I´ve a song released in US and France, it´s called “See Around”.
    Amazon ( France).
    http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B0032FVNDS/ref=dm_dp_trk16/280-5567954-5250468

    My first dream is tour US again, and then eventually have a record deal, producer, etc.

    Music is my life, my thing, my creativity!

    The style could be anything in between Pop, Acoustic, Rock, Jazz or Bossa Nova.

    Here are some links of my work:
    http://www.youtube.com/carloscanteri
    http://www.myspace.com/carloscanteri
    http://www.twitter.com/ccanteri

    Hopefully, we can help each other, knowing that I´m very serious about music and life.

    Thanks , Peace always,
    Carlos Canteri

  • Robert McCoskey

    Hello Lori,

    I enjoyed reading your post. Just to ensure that I didn’t have any restrictions on my account of 12k first degree connections I emailed LinkedIn at that email address you provided and it bounced back? I rechecked my email and did indeed use the email address exactly as you typed in, but no luck?

    Any ideas?

    Robert

    • http://www.integratedalliances.com loriruff

      Thanks for the note! It used to work… try this one: LinkedIn Customer Service [linkedin_support@cs.linkedin.com]

  • Robert McCoskey

    Hello Lori,

    I enjoyed reading your post. Just to ensure that I didn’t have any restrictions on my account of 12k first degree connections I emailed LinkedIn at that email address you provided and it bounced back? I rechecked my email and did indeed use the email address exactly as you typed in, but no luck?

    Any ideas?

    Robert

    • http://www.integratedalliances.com loriruff

      Thanks for the note! It used to work… try this one: LinkedIn Customer Service [linkedin_support@cs.linkedin.com]

  • http://aidanfoley.wordpress.com/ Aidan Foley

    Lori,
    Will you buy me a cup of Joe? :) Sorry, couldn’t resist. Totally agree with you on some people’s approach to ask others to send you an invite. It’s right up there with, Please connect with me. The first things that comes to mind are, Who are you, and Why should I connect with you? It forces ME to do the research on THEM. Simply drives me crazy!
    Aidan

  • http://aidanfoley.wordpress.com/ Aidan Foley

    Lori,
    Will you buy me a cup of Joe? :) Sorry, couldn’t resist. Totally agree with you on some people’s approach to ask others to send you an invite. It’s right up there with, Please connect with me. The first things that comes to mind are, Who are you, and Why should I connect with you? It forces ME to do the research on THEM. Simply drives me crazy!
    Aidan

  • Detoam

    I had to laugh. I know it’s serious, but I just couldn’t help it. I am always suspicious of people like that. And always add them to the spammer list.

  • Detoam

    I had to laugh. I know it’s serious, but I just couldn’t help it. I am always suspicious of people like that. And always add them to the spammer list.

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