When someone reaches out to you with a LinkedIn invitation to connect, connecting and then ignoring them is like someone walking up to you at a business card exchange, handing you their card, taking it and immediately walking away! Not even a hello, nice to meet you. You wouldn’t do that in person, so why would you do that on LinkedIn?

They reached out to you right? Welcome them to your network and find out if it makes sense to build a stronger connection. Before you write your note, make sure you check to see if they had a personal message, if you didn’t notice, visit your messaging tab and look up their name. If they sent a personal note, it will be here. Now when you write your “welcome to my network note”, be sure you relate back to their original message so they know that you took the time to read it.

If they are an ideal stakeholder, buyer, connections maybe something like:

NAME,

Thanks so much for reaching out and connecting, happy to add you to my network. I am curious, may I ask how you found me?

I had a chance to visit your profile and am very impressed with XXX (make it authentic). As a TITLE, I thought you might be interested in a blog post I published a few months ago on XXX LINK. THIS IS WHY I THINK IT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU.

Let me know your thoughts.

YOUR NAME AND CONTACT INFO

If you get no response in a few days you can send either a second message. Remember the messaging is in a thread, so they will see your previous message.

NAME,

I hope you enjoyed the article I set last week. I wanted to share (AN ADDITIONAL INSIGHT THAT WILL OFFER THEM VALUE AND GIVE YOU CREDIBILITY). I have some additional insights I think you may find valuable. If you are open, I’d love to set up a brief call to share them with you. Whether or not we do business together, I am confident a call will be well worth your time. I have some time on Thursday afternoon, let me know what works best for you. (Alternatively — To make scheduling easy, here is a link to my calendarCalendly.com, please pick a time that works best for you.

(consider reading the content they have shared and engaging both on LInkedIn and twitter)

When someone you invited to connect to accepts your invitation, they will appear as an unread message if you included a personal note. Be sure to continue the conversation, and if appropriate, ask for a phone call.

If we don’t engage with your connections, we might as well buy the yellow pages (that is if they still print them). It is so important to spark conversations with your new connections.

Hope this helps! Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn! http://Linkedin.com/in/brynnetillman