Twitter has an “unfollow” button which many people use when necessary. Unfortunately LinkedIn does not have a “disconnect” button, where you can “relieve yourself of the burden” of networking with somebody who just does not get it! You can remove a connection, but it takes some work.

I recently had a request to connect from a gentlemen on LinkedIn, which I accepted. I sent a personalized thank you note, and made mention of the other places that he could connect with me.

To my surprise, I was then sent a generic email (with my name inserted) promoting their business and asking me to get involved. There was no acknowledgement of my personalized reply, just them “barfing out” their sales pitch. Usually I let this type of interaction slide, but I had a little “bite in my step” that day, and wanted to give them some friendly advice.

My exact response was:

“I appreciate your connection, but I don’t think that you should be “flogging” your products the moment that we connect.

Just a friendly suggestion to change-up your approach as you attempt to attract partners.

Thank you,

Tim”

I thought this was going to go one of two ways. I would either never hear from them again, or they could come back with some defence of their sales strategy. Instead I received:

“Dear Tim Mushey. Thank you so much for your reply”…

Followed by a canned sales pitch being “barfed” on me a second time, but now TWICE AS LONG!

Did I mention that he also sent me one of those generic LinkedIn invites ? Yuk.

At the end of the day, those who are engaging online, specifically for business purposes, should know better. This is networking 101! Would you try to sell somebody your products and services from the moment that you met them in person? I would hope not! So why should it be ok online?

Network “virtually” like you would “personally”. Show up, be responsive and care about your connections. The last thing you want is for people to “unfollow” or “disconnect” with you soon after accepting your requests.

That would be a huge red flag that you need to adjust your approach.