Despite all of the content around the etiquette of social selling, I have seen the opposite behavior than what is being recommended as best practices.

I am definitely seeing the benefits of my labor, building a personal brand and contributing to the social ecosystem, but it seems like I am seeing lots of noise too.

I refer back to my recent post about hanging a shingle, and yes, it’s true. People will show up at your doorstep. But, will the right people show up? Well, I am learning that depends on the signage and how clear your messaging is.

So, here is the punch line…

Because I have profiled myself as an “Angel Investor” I have been bombarded with the following:

1. Random invites to connect, no personal message, just the generic invite

2. Being the avid networker, I usually accept..

3. I then receive an immediate solicitation to fund some obscure start-up

4. I usually, respond nicely and reject…

5. Repeat…

Conclusions:

1. No one pays attention to my request to let me know why they want to connect. They just blow by this basic courtesy

2. Content marketing is working but, clearly, my signage needs some modification so there are some filters for solicitations

3. No one seems to be engaging as directed before pouncing

Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining, rather offering some feedback and instructive observations. So, we know that content marketing works! But, people seems to be ignoring the many suggestions to engage and not sell….which makes me chuckle. Now, I have seen some interesting opportunities…I just need to work on filtering out the noise.

So Chad at Connect and Sell, maybe there is a new product for your team around LinkedIn behavior….Connect and Pitch?

I dunno.