Being polite still counts

There's a poll running on Ecademy about "What's your major criterion to connect to someone on Linkedin?".

At the time of writing this blog, #1 is "Polite and customized request" with 28% of the votes. 2nd is "Introduced by a trusted referral" with 24%, which is interesting as that's the whole point of LinkedIn, isn't it?

For me, the key thing about this poll is it gives an insight into how people make these type of decisions. As someone who approaches people every day with business propositions, the poll seems to agree with my own observations.

If you take the time to make a personal approach, that is polite, relevant and tailored to the person you're contacting, and includes some reference to an individual or company that they know: the odds are good that you'll be successful. Not 100% of the time, but a good percentage.

It doesn't matter if it's a phone call, an email, or a LinkedIn request. If it's polite, relevant & tailored to them and credible (hence the reference) then you'll get good results.

There are so many people out there reeling off scripts over the phone, or just sending out junk emails, that you will stand-out just by following these simple rules.

David Regler
Maine Associates Ltd

Technorati Tags - social networking, Linkedin, Ecademy