Poll... Do you personalise your linked in invites? Or is it just me?

I always do this, to not do it means you're reliant on the person remembering who you are which is a missed opportunity. Just a few words about where you met them will help to jog their memory. If you haven't met then a few words about why I should LinkIn is very helpful and reduces the risk of being ignored.

Funny this has came up today, I have been on a LinkedIn training course today ran by BranchingOutEurope, it was one of the things they covered. A personal note is recommended.

If anyone else is as "un-linkedIn" as i was it, its worth doing.

I always add a personalised message - even if it's along the lines of 'it was great to meet you at the Breakfast Meeting recently' - a bit of extra effort when making a Linked-In connection can make all the difference to the person at the other end.

I use this trick too Michelle.  I've found I get awesome response rates.

I also personalise my own LinkedIn invites - otherwise it seems like you couldn't be bothered.

And that's exactly how I feel if I receive one of the standard invites!!

They should just add a tick box that says "I don't know you but I feel like we should connect anyway" Save me the moment of anxiety when I have to try to rack my brains as to whether we have met before and I just forgot.

A personal message would serve to a break down the barriers of random connections (I posted about this a couple of months ago) and it helps to connect on a warmer level with people you have met in person.

I'm all for it!

Always personalise them! Would be good to have an option where you can add people you don't know. You'd think LinkedIn would have moved with the times a little... doesn't stop people from doing it, but as Neil says can be confusing to people when they try and think where they met you - but they haven't.

Always personalise them so they know if they know me or not, how they know me or why I wan't to connect with them.  I think most genuine people do.

Agree for more random connections (eg met once 6 months ago).

I recently decided to bolster my LinkedIn connections, with a lot of people who I speak to fairly regularly outside LinkedIn.  Possibly sounds silly, but I deliberately _didn't_ personalise the requests.  Partly because I didn't really know what to say (and I imagine every LinkedIn user recognises the default text) and partly because I like people to think I work really hard, rather than spending all my time thinking up wonderful greeting messages

Yep, this is something I always do as it only takes a minute anyway. If people don't then from the recipients perspective it just feels a bit spammy and as though you're just another number in their network... Just my tupenneth...

Cheers

Richard

To be honest I just send the standard one as it is only ever to people I know. I also have a tool called Rapportive in my Mailbox which indicates if that person is on LinkedIn or Twitter. I just send the standard one from there.

I completely agree with the points made that there should be a tick option for "we met at......" 

Then you can jog people's memory!  

Thanks for all the feedback.  I have had eight requests today - only one personalised!

Oh boy.

Amazed people still ask about this.

YES YOU MUST PERSONALISE YOUR INVITATIONS.

 Simple reason, 95% of personalised invites say yes, only 40% of non-personalised invites say yes. I'm a direct marketer, I test and measure this stuff.

If you can't be bothered to send me a simple personalised message, why should I bother to reply?