Today I was updating my contacts on LinkedIn and was looking at some old invitations that had never been responded too.  I found one particular response funny.

Here is the scoop…I sent an invitation to a man who runs a networking organization.  At one point, I was a member of one of his local chapters.  I had met this individual on more than one occasion and was personally trained by him because I had been asked to be on the leadership team.   When he received my invitation he replied back that he didn’t know me and therefore we were not “linkedin” together.

Now I don’t know if that strikes you as funny as it does me, but I am going to share with you a couple of tips if you find your memory fading and someone invites you to connect on LinkedIn.

1. If someone invites you that you don’t know, don’t just blow them off.  Send them an email and politely ask them how you know each other. People understand that we are all bombarded on a regular basis with information and that occasionally we all need a gentle reminder.

2.  Once you get the reply, if your memory has been triggered and you indeed know the person, by all means send along a thank you and make the connection.

3.  If you don’t know the person but think you might want to be connected to them its really your call at this point.  You can choose to ignore the request to connect or better yet you can check to see if there are other people that you know in common. If you feel comfortable connecting, then do so and if not send a polite “not at this time message”.

4.  And for goodness sake if you run a networking organization and are into building up your connections, don’t just give a blanket “I don’t know you” as a reply.  It shows a complete lack networking skill!  Follow my tips  to show your savvy networking abilities.

Whatever you do, don’t look as foolish as this man did by not  investigating if there is a legitimate connection to be had.

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