I made a post on LinkedIn last week asking for recommendations for SEO specialists that my connections had actually worked with and were happy to recommend.
The post was very specific …it said:
“Who have you worked with to improve a web site’s SEO and what were the results?”
I also wanted to avoid receiving lots of spam messages so I also included
“Please don’t email me, send me a LinkedIn message or call me. I’m only interested in hearing about SEO specialists you’ve actually worked with.”
I had two objectives in making the post:
Firstly to actually find recommended SEO specialists I could talk to, but secondly, I was also interested to see whether people actually read the post and complied with the specific request or just jumped on what they thought might be a “hot lead”.
The results were fascinating!
Firstly the positives
Four people made specific recommendations so a huge thank you to Brian Carpenter, Andre Alford, Athole Forbes and Paul Hatfield. I’m now talking to your recommended contacts and have been impressed by them all.
Now the negatives.
- 7 people commented on the post offering me their services.
- I received around 30 connection requests … I deleted them all.
- I received 11 LinkedIn messages from people offering their services…. I ignored them.
- I received around 12 direct emails, (some of which asked me to provide my site URL even though they already had it in my email address that they presumably found on my profile.)
- I received one phone call from someone who claimed to have read the post (which clearly stipulated that I didn’t want any calls, and when I ended the call, they rang me back to argue.
- 4 people posted suggesting that I talk to one of their colleagues, 1 of which was my absolute favourite example of what not to do. They suggested I talk to their MD who then sent me a Linkedln message and then I received a call from one of their sales reps who said he’d read the post.
Now don’t get me wrong, I get that you might want to follow up on a sales opportunity, but ignoring the prospect’s stated expectations won’t get you very far and immediately damages your reputation.
There’s a lesson to be learned here…… There’s absolutely nothing wrong with trawling through LinkedIn posts to find potential leads, but if you’re going to do this, make sure you read the posts properly and do what’s asked.
For more guidance on how to use LinkedIn effectively you might find some of these articles helpful:
LinkedIn Connection Requests – What’s The right Approach
Using LinkedIn As Part Of Your Sales Strategy
5 Essential Things To Do Before Connecting And Sending Messages On LinkedIn
Are you struggling to get results from LinkedIn? Maybe we can help.
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