Most LinkedIn connection requests I get have the default connection message “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn”. What I think that people don’t realize is 1. you only have a limited amount of LinkedIn connection request in your lifetime (3 000) and 2. it is a lot more likely that people respond to your connection request if you give them a reason.

In a psychological experiment, scientists tried compliance rates and found that providing a reason for compliance with a statement increases the chance of a yes by 57 %. This means that if you are always giving a reason to why the person should connect, the yes frequency should be 57 % higher.

One of the problems with LinkedIn is that the specialized connection request is kind of hidden in the app, so I took three screen shots to help you.

1. Find Someone To Connect To

Find a profile on LinkedIn that you want to connect. I obviously didn’t connect to Obama, but let’s say that I would want to try my luck. In this view, click the three dots that I marked with pink below:

2. Chose Personalize Invite

In this field, click the personalize invite option.

3. Write Why You Want to Connect

Give the person a reason to connect with them. Think about why you want to connect with the person and write that reason.

Try this out and see if you can get a higher response rate over a week. Please comment if you see any change in response rates.

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