LinkedIn Etiquettes: Common Reputation-Damaging Activities That You Must Avoid

Workplace etiquette is important, as bad manners at office can be bad for business’s growth by affecting employee morale and efficiency. When someone takes phone calls loudly, cooks an Atlantic salmon in the office’s microwave, or brings malicious dogs to meeting, how does it feel and what’ll happen? The workplace can become stressful when teams don’t follow basic office etiquette.

But when it comes to LinkedIn etiquette, how aware are you?

LinkedIn is a social network that is different from any other platforms available today. People here act a lot more professional. You should definitely take advantage of this largest professional network especially when it comes to your career. And you need to take care to maintain proper LinkedIn etiquette at all times.

If truth be told, you, me and every smart social media user might even be accidentally breaking some of those LinkedIn rules right now. But there are certain practices of LinkedIn etiquette that need to be followed by every business professional.

For every socially advanced reader, it is important to learn LinkedIn etiquettes and avoid some common mistakes that happen almost every day.

Sending a Connection Request to Your Hiring Manager

It sounds very exciting and tempting to see the LinkedIn notification, your hiring manager at your dream company, viewed your LinkedIn profile, the day before your job interview.
Obviously, you feel so excited. Possibly you send him a LinkedIn request, as he did view your profile. For you, it might be a great opportunity to show him that you really want this job.

Connecting with a hiring manager just before your first job interview, or anyone else that you don’t know at your dream company, is too personal. The hiring manager interview many candidates and it’s not necessary for them to connect with every single candidate.
You can wait until: you get the job offer or the hiring manager connects with you first, or after the interview.

Endorse Someone’s Skills You Don’t Know

I’m sure you, me and everyone has got too many skills, so, does it mean we should just endorse each other. It is highly recommended to avoid endorsing individuals you haven’t worked with. This way it keeps everyone honest and more businesslike.

No Reason for Connecting

There are many people on LinkedIn who will try to connect with you. But I’m sure they have a real reason for that. But mostly a connection request from a stranger feels weird as you don’t even recognize the person’s LinkedIn profile picture, never met the person, never done business together and has nothing in common.

Perhaps the reason for connecting with an unknown person might be, you were browsing LinkedIn and glanced at someone’s profile, so you thought why not add this unknown to your trusted professional network.

If you want to connect with a completely stranger on LinkedIn, have a reason and something to offer. It isn’t too much difficult. For instance, you read my blog post, or mention that you might need to hire a candidate with the same skills sometimes in the future. A personal message is always far better than to send requests to connect with people randomly.

Finding Your Partner

Some people actually use this professional social network to find their life partners. A report by Chicago Tribune suggests that there is an app called BeLinked that makes it easier to find the right date partner based on your LinkedIn profile. Sounds interesting?

Reddit users say that people repeatedly view the profiles of their crushes or ex-lovers, perhaps, once or repeatedly. Sounds very creepy. If you are looking for a life partner, you are in the wrong platform. There are hundreds of websites, apps and social media networks available that will help you find the right one. But, please keep LinkedIn for professional purposes only.

How to Master LinkedIn like a Pro

If you are offering a job or a new business opportunity, connect with anyone who has the relevant skills. People, love to connect with new clients and love new jobs – in fact. It’s okay to check the profile of someone who is completely stranger to you, as long as your interest is professional. But keep in mind, every time you view their profile, they’ll get a notification.

If you want to connect with a stranger, have a solid reason and something valuable to offer. For instance, you both run fashion websites in the same city and have a same target audience so it might be interesting to partner on a promotion.

If you are looking to build your professional network on Linked, try sharing some interesting content instead of connecting with strange users. Create a thoughtful LinkedIn post so that people find it inspiring or send someone your industry reports so that they can get the idea about your interest and skills.

If you are looking to find your life partner, you are at the wrong place. There are a number of apps and sites that will help you find your soulmate.

Focus on quality of relationships instead of quantity of your connections. Connect with coworkers and other business professionals on LinkedIn in the right manner and get the most out of it.