Am I this good looking?

I love networking, meeting people, and just be around where there are things happening. As a long time sales person, it is always much more fun to meet personally than calling or emailing your business partners. Nothing better than face-2-face for business, but this is not always possible as we all know.

Then great ideas like LinkedIn show up: a place to meet people of similar interest, without even ever heard about them, but have things in common: similar industries or interests, situation, affiliation, etc. But there is a problem: it is far too easy to request for a connection, so some people start clicking the button "Connect", without at least an introduction of themselves and why would you like to connect, if the case is that in reality you never met before.

You can always ignore the invitation, but on the other hand if you ignore it, this could be a missed opportunity for both to do something together. I keep getting invitations (I am sure it is not because of my good looks), as I am sure most of you, without a simple explanation other than the usual: "I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.". If there is something interesting other than just adding a number to your personal statistic, please say why!.

Here are some tips taken from LinkedIn about asking for a connection:

1. You want to sell me something?: Please tell me right upfront. I will decide if I am interested or not. If I am, great, we hit it together and an opportunity grabbed!
2. You want to meet someone that I know? Use the "get introduce by" functionality, with a simple message like: Oscar, I’ saw that you worked here and there, and I would like to contact this person that you know because I am looking for a job and I know they are looking....
3. You are interested to know more about the industries or companies that I worked for, or maybe just my experience. You can always say it in you invitation, and I will gladly (as many of you readers) support and help. This is what the networking is about: helping each other, but at least give us the chance to know a bit more before moving forward.

By following these simple steps, most of the connections will be more meaningful, and many some of the ignored ones, could actually become true, if a little introduction about why you want to connect, is placed on your invitation.