Doing business via LinkedIn

[Kay]

I received a message via LI from someone who wants to talk about doing business with one of my sites. It's a legit company and it would be relevant to my website to partner/affiliate with them. I ignored the message. Why? Because if you want to talk to me about my website then you should contact me via the website you want to talk to me about.

We have contact forms in place on most of our websites. I can't be running all over the place talking to people on various social media sites. If someone read my LI profile and wanted to offer me a job, partnership, or opportunity to make money then I'd probably talk to them. But if you want to put something on the table for my website, then you should contact me via that site.

Does that have you shaking your head in disbelief thinking I'm crazy?

[BethL]

I'd consider it an interesting lead, and then re-direct them to your preferred channel of communication. People come with different backgrounds and expectations, and if you need or want the business, you need to teach them about your expectations.

The sender may have been 'taught' by somebody else that 'the proper way to reach out is via LinkedIn' and I'd guess it took a little extra effort to go find you there instead of defaulting to the website's contact form.

If they won't switch to your preferred channel, then that's a different issue.

[DomainMagnate]

For me it doesn't where the offer came from, only what it was and who it was from.

[Thomas]

Agreed. An opportunity is an opportunity - I don't particular care where it comes from

[Kay]

The sender may have been 'taught' by somebody else that 'the proper way to reach out is via LinkedIn'

It seems an odd way to go about things to me. Why not just email me? Or if he didn't have my email address, then he could've used the website contact form. I hardly ever use LI and certainly don't intend to start using it as a place to enter into discussions about doing website business with anyone. Maybe he should have tweeted his interest or posted it on FaceBook or something.

How many people here would contact a person with a business proposal via LI or similar when there are other more logical means to get in touch?

[Dave McM]

I can see benefit to an approach through LinkedIn if the person approaching and the person approached have an LI contact in common - I suppose seeing someone's LI profile without the common contact may give some idea of their standing more generally, but the introduction element would make it much more useful.

Otherwise, I can't really see any benefit to making an approach in that indirect way and, like Kay, I'd find it odd to be approached out of the blue by a stranger on LI - it would smack of Facebook spam.

[Chabrenas]

LinkedIn sells itself as a place for professionals to make contact. I've had business telephone conversations in which someone happened to mention a useful contact for an unrelated subject, and gave me bth Twitter and LinkedIn contact points.

[SteveGill]

LinkedIn sells itself as a place for professionals to make contact.

I agree with this. Being contacted by someone through linkedin allows you to check their profile and decide whether they're legit or not. I would certainly take any approach from a legit person or business on linkedin seriously.

[BethL]

LinkedIn sells itself as a place for professionals to make contact.

Yes, and for this reason it seems a logical place to make the first contact in a business/professional setting. Email seems more personal to me. The same way I would prefer snail mail over email to send my resume if I didn't already have a connection, I would choose LinkedIn for cold calls because I presume you set up a profile there to facilitate professional contacts.

[tke71709]

Does that have you shaking your head in disbelief thinking I'm crazy?

100% yes.

So if they phoned you via the details in the Whois you would decline to take their call or if they emailed you directly you would refuse to answer them?

I'd take an inquiry from LI more seriously than I would from anywhere else other than a direct referral. It's still a fairly spam free environment full of professionals trying to do business, unlike a random person who contacts you via a web form. This isn't FB or Twitter.