Members are losing growth because they are using the mobile LinkedIn app.
Since I started using LinkedIn seriously, I made sure NEVER to invite new connections with the standard LinkedIn invite sentence, 'I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn'.
It made a massive difference to growing my network and reach and I'm pleased with my progress.
I teach others to always use a personal message and write something to make the invite personal. All of you know this right?
So why has the standard invite not been changed?
And why hasn't mobile given us the same opportunity for sending a personal message?
Now that LinkedIn is being opened up to a bigger and younger audience, guess how they will invite someone? Correct, via mobile! Guess how many rejections they will receive? Loads.
Why? Because business professionals are saying that they will not connect to someone they don't know and especially if they don't include a personal message.
Mobile will by far be the biggest opportunity for LinkedIn growth, most new members wish to grow their network fast, especially young people, as they are keen and excited with a new opportunity like LinkedIn.
They've been used to just invite hundreds of school friends on Facebook and follow like crazy on Twitter. It will be wrong for them to replicate their behaviour from those platforms, but we both know that they won't and will make a massive mistake but just sending out tons of invites, by clicking on ’connect’ against profiles showing up on their mobile devices.
Please Mr. LinkedIn, please change the way that you can invite members to connect on mobile and please, change the standard #LinkedIn invite sentence or at least add a flag that says, say something personal.
The ’only invite people you know’ message just doesn't work anymore.
Looking forward to some positive action from you Mr. LinkedIn.
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