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LinkedIn Question
I know some (many?) of you are LinkedIn users. I am a cursory user of only the mildest degree, so I had a newbie question…
When a person sends you an invitation, and you decline it, does that person on the other end KNOW that their invitation was declined? Or does simply nothing happen on their end?
Here’s the thing: I’m too nice I guess. Like I said, I am the mildest of LinkedIn users… I have had an account for years, and I’ll accept invitations that I deem worthy, but I have never sent an invitation and never really used LinkedIn for anything.
Here’s the too nice part: Like most of you probably, I get tons of invitations. I accept the ones that I want to (people I either know, or want to get to know). The others, I ignore. I have no idea why the IT guy at a Staples store in Washington would want to connect with me, nor a guy who specializes in reclaiming barn wood in Phoenix, nor an Amtrak engineer in Boston… but they do. An invitation I got a few minutes ago (which prompted this post) was just a name. That’s all. No company, location, business, industry, genre, or anything. Just a name I had never heard.
I’m all for networking when done as it should be… but I don’t necessarily want everyone I know blindly connecting with everyone else that I know and everyone else that they know, and so on…
I have no intention of connecting with these people, but I never decline the invitation. I guess I had always been afraid the sender would see that, and I didn’t want to look like a bad guy (I was a bit mortified to recently learn that with the voice casting service we use, when we rank a voice actor they SEE that… I thought that was just for our admin purposes). Consequently, I have unanswered invitations just piling up. I’m not sure how many, but there are hundreds and hundreds of them.
So… what does the sender see when I click the big X instead of accepting ? And honestly they are not all “mystery inviters”… frankly some of them are people I actually know, even some clients, so I want to tread lightly.
Wisdom appreciated…
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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10 Replies
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For some people, the number of their social contacts is just a game; the more contacts, the more you “win”. Even if they are completely irrelevant.
I keep my connections to people I know, people who I want to help, or people who can help or have helped me in some way, regarding work. All the other junk is for facebook or twitter or whatnot. and LI is just for my business contacts. I got dragged into Linked In by Ron and Kathleen, I don’t know that I’d have done it without their prompting. LI does have some discussion thread boards but not of the quality or spontaneity that the COW has, for me, anyway. Perhaps when my job/career situation changes, I’ll work it harder but until then my page is just coasting.
Don’t feel bad turning down alien contacts who come at you without references or any thing in common… It’s just business.
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You’re aware of course, Mark, that you did not answer my question.
(and now I’m looking forward to declining his LinkedIn invitation)
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I don’t respond many times for exactly the same reason you state. I want a list that is relevant to my business in some manner….if it doesn’t look like there is a connection I don’t respond to the invite.
Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media Inc.
Video Production, Post, Studio Sound Stage
Founder/President/Editor/Designer/Animator
https://www.tiltmedia.com -
Aaaarrrghhh. No one is hearing my actual question…which I thought was a simple one. ARRRRGHHH….
I know it’s ok to ignore people. I do it all the time. I’m probably ignoring some emails and phone calls right now. I probably have some unanswered texts I haven’t got to yet, and some I may never get to. I have no problem with that.
What I’m curious about is if I actively and purposely DECLINE a LinkedIn invitation, does the person who sent me the invitation know that?… do they see that I have declined it, somehow? I know if I just ignore the invitation, they see nothing, I’m assuming.
I have no problem declining random strangers, but like a lot of you in here, many of my connections are colleagues in the production industry. But a lot of the invitations I seem to get are from existing clients. I don’t necessarily want to connect with clients that I already do business with, nor do I want them connecting with the other production people that I know. AND… I don’t want them to see that I declined their invitation. Ignoring it could be seen as passingly rude, but that’s easy to cover (“Oh I never used LinkedIn, I don’t even look at those invites.”). But if they see that I actually declined an invitation rather than just ignored it, that goes from passingly rude to blatantly rude… and I don’t want to treat clients that way.
So… simple question… can someone who sends a LinkedIn invitation tell if it has been actually purposely declined.
And now I’m calmed down. Sorry about earlier.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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OK, just test it with someone you know in your family. Ask them what response they get. Or is that too easy?
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They aren’t notified if you decline. Only if you accept.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
THANK YOU, Shane…
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Shane Ross] “They aren’t notified if you decline. Only if you accept.”
Good to know. But I wouldn’t assume that this remains the case forever. They could always change the way they operate.
Todd, I would be happy to send you my first ever LI invitation, but only if you promise to decline.
Bob C
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Received the invite.
Although I consider you a friend, Bob… it was a pleasure to decline your invitation!
Thanks……..
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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And Shane was correct – I never got any indication from Linked In whether you had declined or ignored the invitation.
Your former friend,
Bob
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