I have an evil twin that likes to poke the hornets nest. I haven’t named this evil twin yet, maybe I’ll have to do a contest and let my tribe name her. For now, this alter-ego of mine was having a grand time making fun of someone publicly.
I. Just. Couldn’t. Help. Myself.
Here’s the situation: I received one of “those” messages. You know, the kind where you’ve been personally selected to receive money from a special off-shore bank account… Special account? Uh-huh, right.
Special bank offer in LinkedIn message
Seriously? A special bank offer in a message sent to a bunch of people on LinkedIn?
So, this is where my evil twin couldn’t help herself… and I responded with:
“Wow! This MUST be realllly urgent if we ALL got the same message together… What do you think, folks? This could be THE day that our ship finally comes sailing in!
;)”
Before I clicked send, I thought about it for a few seconds and weighed whether or not I should send the message. But, in the end I wanted to be the one who made a statement about this poor message etiquette. My reputation is that of pointing out what is and is not right, so I knew I had to send out the response.
I crossed my fingers that I wasn’t totally ruining my reputation amongst a bunch of strangers and then hit send!
Here are the responses I’ve received:
- Hahaha, love these dudes!
- Jennifer: Yep, I blocked him. Best, Dave
- Yes, it must be really, really important. Let’s discuss together!!!
(I just love people with a sense of humor!)
I hope that Husam got the point that he made a bad choice when sending his bank offer LinkedIn message to all of us. *Insert evil twin giggle here*
Lesson learned:
When sending a message to a bunch of people at one time, make sure it’s like sending a BCC via email.
To ensure this needless embarrassing faux pas doesn’t happen to you, uncheck the box that is found at the bottom of the message window (see the red arrow). Uncheck it if you don’t want all the recipients to see each others email addresses and names. If you do want everyone to see each others email and names, then leave the box checked.
The obvious point here is that you need to treat LinkedIn messages just as you would an email message; therefore, all the digital communication etiquette rules still apply.
And this faux pas isn’t just for the random over seas guy with a bad banking invitation, unfortunately I’ve seen the same blunder from people who are:
- Looking for a job and sending out mass messages
- Asking for advice
- Looking for a mentor
- and other embarrassing ways. Ouch!
Ideally, if you really want to connect with someone one-on-one, remember to uncheck the box and then enjoy the responses from people individually.
When I teach my next classes on either Email Etiquette or Social Media for Corporate Success for a client company, I’m totally referencing this bank offer message as an example of WHAT NOT TO DO when sending messages through LinkedIn.
What’s your favorite LinkedIn message faux pas?