How NOT to be a Pest on Professional Networks

Recently I have been developing my LinkedIn presence. In general, it has been a pleasant experience. I have learnt a lot about inbound marketing, generated more traffic to my website and made some very interesting professional contacts, both translators and professionals in the aerospace industry.

HOWEVER, I have also received a number of inappropriate messages from several people (mainly of the opposite sex, it has to be said) who clearly haven’t worked out the difference between a professional networking website and a dating/social networking website.

To date, my response has been to politely remind these people that I use LinkedIn and my Facebook business page for professional purposes only.

Now, I consider myself a fairly tolerant person and believe that people should be given the possibility to learn and grow. I have therefore written this dummy’s guide to separate the kind of communication that is appropriate for professional networking from communication that is best kept for dating/social networking sites or that should not be used at all. These are based on messages I have actually received either on LinkedIn or my Facebook business page in the past couple of weeks. For any pests out there, don't worry, I'm not going to name and shame.

Communication received	Suitable for professional sites	Better kept for dating sites
Are you married?	❌	✅
It was nice to meet you at the conference.	✅	❌
I would love to meet you, I’m not looking for anything professional	❌	✅
I was impressed with your profile and would like to connect with you professionally	✅	❌
Where are you from?	❌	✅
Hey! You blocked me on another network but I found you here! How are you?	❌	❌
I’d love to find out more about your business and hopefully we can work together in the future	✅	❌

Do you have any more examples of inappropriate communication on professional networking sites? How do you deal with it?

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