The 3 Kinds of LinkedIn Messages That Are Unlikely to Get a Response
Author: Emily Liou
As a career coach, my inbox is often flooded with messages from people I’m connected with on LinkedIn who are reaching out about something or another. Now, I don’t mean to be judgmental, but I often find myself sighing with annoyance when I open them up—so much so that I was motivated to write this article.
You see, the thing is, I’m open to making new connections and willing to talk to anyone, so the fact that I often put off responding to messages means people are missing the mark. And that stinks because it takes effort to both find people to connect with in the first place and then cultivate a networking relationship from there.
I want to be excited when I read your message and I know you want that, too (or at least I hope you do!). Often times, it only takes a few tweaks to your words or tone to make that possible.
Below are messages inspired by real ones I’ve received along with my thoughts on why they’re not the best approach.
Quick note though: Unless you have LinkedIn Premium, you’ll need to connect before you send a message. But that doesn’t mean you can just send the generic invite. Instead, send a customized one with with these short templates so they’ll accept your request and you’ll be able to actually send over a note.
1. The Empty Query
Initial Reaction
It’s nice that you want to find a way to help one another out, but this message doesn’t give me anything to work with. Perhaps there’s something in my my background that led you to reach out in this manner?
Revised
Why This Is Better
Anyone can spot a generic, non-customized message from three Wi-Fi zones away, and if you care about standing out, you’ll be careful not to be labeled as generic, right? The updated version attempts to start building a rapport. By including a customized, targeted line, I can tell George has looked into my background and is excited about finding a way to potentially work together. And that makes me much more inclined to respond to this.
2. The Vague Ask
Initial Reaction
How’s everything? Hm, that’s a rather large question for someone I don’t know in real life. In fact, I’m not sure I’d even know where to begin in responding to this person.
The Revised Message
Why This Is Better
Being clear up front is just good business. It sets clear intentions and demonstrates professionalism. Many people have experienced accepting a meeting only to find it turn into a sales pitch. If you’re clear about the reason why you’re reaching out, you’re going to build a higher level of trust out the gate and find people who are attracted to your proposal. This is what building a network is all about.
3. The Forceful Demand
Initial Reaction
Hi Matt. My current profile has been updated to indicate that I’m no longer a recruiter (not to mention I definitely don’t specialize in the Florida market as I’m in Los Angeles). If you’re going to spend the time, energy, and effort in sending messages and attempting to foster relationships, it’s far more more effective if you target the correct audience.
The Revised Message
Why This Is Better
If you’re actively seeking a new position and are wanting to connect, it makes a huge difference if you can share in a couple of sentences what you’re looking for and a glimpse of what you bring to the table. Even though I’m no longer entrenched in the recruiting world, I’m still well-connected.
If Matt had demonstrated clear professionalism in a straightforward introduction, and made note of target roles he’s seeking, I’d for sure be inclined to point him to resources or ask him for his resume to pass along.
The thing to remember is that if you’re asking one of your LinkedIn contacts for something, you need to make it as easy as possible for that person to follow up.
It may be difficult to see it, but every piece of correspondence counts—from the way you first connect to how you stay connected. Don’t randomly reach out to 20 of your LI connections for the sake of hoping something falls into place in your job search. By building off of the revised templates above, you’ll be able to initiate conversations that result in meaningful networking relationships.
Photo credit: wernerimages/Getty Images.
To read the original article, click here.
The Big Welcome in Every Language!
It's Time To Give Our International Students A Grand Welcome
By Joe Cimperman
They began arriving on campus last week, nervous and excited and anxious to learn their way around this strange new city.
They come from Italy and India and Lithuania. They came from China and Saudi Arabia and Argentina. They came in big numbers—nearly 7,000 of them.
I’m talking about our international students—who we should really be viewing as reinforcements.
If you have greeted or hired one of our international students, bless you. You are helping Cleveland. If you do not know about this resource waiting to be utilized, let me tell you about it.
These are some of the brightest young people on the planet. That’s why their families and their nations sent them to America for college.
Typically, they are earning an advanced degree.
Our colleges and universities love them because they are hard-working and pay full tuition and help create a cultural mosaic on campus. (Have lunch one day on the campus of CWRU or CSU or KSU and see what I mean).
Our cities should love them even more. Why? Because they are going to help us compete in the global economy—if we let them.
Here are some facts about our international students that you may not know:
- They are likely to be earning an in-demand degree in a STEM field—science, technology, engineering or math
- They are more likely than the average college student to be awarded a U.S. patent for an invention
- They are more likely to start a business
- They are bilingual and often multi-lingual
These are no ordinary immigrants. These are ambitious, culturally savvy young adults primed to help us succeed in the new economy.
The key is to get them to stay on after graduation, to get them to view Northeast Ohio as the place to launch their companies and their careers. We keep some, but not enough. An Ohio Board of Regents study found that our retention rate for international students is below average. Why?
We all need to try harder, civic, corporate, philanthropic, faith based institutions together. We are ready to lead the charge.
Most every week, Global Cleveland hears from an international student—often one with an elite degree—who reports being unable to find a local employer willing to sponsor his or her visa. And so they leave for the coasts. Or for Pittsburg. It hurts our hearts.
One of our big efforts is to help our employers understand the very feasible process of hiring international talent. Another is to help everyone feel welcome here.
Right now, our eyes are on the new arrivals.
On Saturday, we are hosting InterCLE 2017 from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Global Center for Health Innovation. This is a grand welcome for our international students—something that has never been done before.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and business and civic leaders will formally welcome these scholars to our city. There will be international food and music and professional networking. I might even join the after-party in the Flats.
We hope this is the start of something big and something lasting. We envision hosting an InterCLE every year.
These young people love our schools—that’s why they are here. We need their talent and their ambition. We need to love them back.
It starts with a welcome. It starts Saturday. Come and see.
Night Market: Authentically Asian Uniquely Cleveland
Join us for the last Night Market of 2017, September 29th from 5pm-11pm as Global Cleveland president, Joe Cimperman serves as Master of Ceremonies.
Night Market Cleveland draws its cultural history from the traditional Asian Night Markets. These roving festivals would highlight unique finds, foods, wears, and entertainment that could be found no where else during the day, and now you can experience that too in Cleveland at Night Market CLE in old Chinatown.
Night Market is authentically Asian, and uniquely Cleveland. Think farmer's market meets flea market meets food festival meets concert. They work with and support local neighborhood gardens, local restaurants and catering companies, local arts and crafts studios/galleries, as well as local/regional music and entertainment.
At its core, the event series was designed to energize a often-overlooked corner of Cleveland by creating a place where the diverse people and cultures of Cleveland can come together to experience life at night! Night Market Cleveland is open to the public and free to attend. It's Kid-friendly, Family-friendly, and Pet-friendly.
With the authentic variety or sites and sounds, this event has something for everyone to enjoy. Come connect with community, culture and creativity at Night Market Cleveland.
For additional details or more information please visit https://nightmarketcle.com/
Welcoming Week Celebrates Cleveland’s Past and Future
Global Cleveland invites residents of Northeast Ohio to celebrate Welcoming Week, September 15 to 24, by participating in events and activities that recognize the region’s immigrant heritage and the cultures shaping our future.
Welcoming Week is celebrated each fall by hundreds of communities coast to coast under the guidance of Welcoming America, a non-profit group that promotes multicultural inclusion. Global Cleveland is proud to co-sponsor three events that capture the spirit of the week.
On September 15, we will help The City Club welcome Kavita Pawria-Sanchez, the Assistant Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs for the City of New York, to its 2017 Constitution Day Forum. She will speak about the power of citizenship at a noon luncheon. (For reservations, go to www.cityclub.org.)
Pawria-Sanchez oversees efforts to advance immigrant inclusion across city government. Immigrants comprise more than 35 percent of the population of New York City and more than half of it small business owners. In contrast, Cleveland is about 5 percent foreign born.
Her office credits immigrants with boosting entrepreneurship, revitalizing neighborhoods, and making New York competitive in the global tech economy.
“Naturalization and citizenship is important, not just for the individuals who live here but also for the economic vitality of the city as a whole,” said Jazmin Long, who leads naturalization initiatives at Global Cleveland. “New York has shown that immigrants can be successfully integrated into a city, to everyone’s benefit.”
Joe Cimperman, the president of Global Cleveland, thinks Cleveland would see similar results.
“Our immigrant ancestors set the foundation for this great city,” he said. “We’re not New York City, but we’re still an outstanding destination for immigrants. We have a high quality of life and leaders who are eager to welcome new cultures.”
That welcoming spirit will be on display September 17 at the International Village Festival on Cleveland’s near west side. The festival celebrates International Village, Ohio’s first refugee-centric neighborhood.
The Metro West Community Development Organization is restoring abandoned homes and marketing them to families whose children attend Thomas Jefferson International Newcomers Academy, the city’s English immersion school.
The festival will bring together the neighborhood’s established residents and newcomers for a multicultural potluck and storytelling led by Talespinner’s Children’s Theatre. It runs from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Michael Zone Recreation Center Pavilion, 6301 Lorain Avenue.
Finally, on Friday September 22, Global Cleveland will sponsor a lunchtime meet-up at an international restaurant with old world ambience. Meet Global Cleveland staff and friends at Emperor’s Palace, the flagship of Old Chinatown, at 2136 Rockwell Avenue, Cleveland. Let us know you’re coming by emailing [email protected].
A Grand Welcome For Our International Students This Saturday!
Time for a grand welcome for our international students
Hundreds of international students are expected to descend upon InterCLE 2017 Saturday, September 9, at the Global Center for Health Innovation.
Northeast Ohio’s international students, an economic force waiting to be tapped, are being invited to a first-of-its-kind event September 9 at the Global Center for Health Innovation in downtown Cleveland.
Young adults from around the world will descend on InterCLE 2017, where civic and business leaders will, for the first time, formally welcome them to the region. The event will feature music, food, cultural demonstrations, networking with employers and an after-party in the Flats.
Organizers hope the welcome and the camaraderie will enhance the international student experience in Northeast Ohio and entice more of the world’s best and brightest to stay on after graduation and launch careers and businesses here.
The event is being presented by Global Cleveland in partnership with the Friends of Global Cleveland—a new, international young professionals group—and with the support of the City of Cleveland.
“We have an exceptional group of international students studying in Greater Cleveland,” said Yulu Li, president of the Friends of Global Cleveland. “But too many of them go home or leave for other parts of the country after graduation. We want them to know they are welcome in Cleveland and Akron and they can have a great life here.”
Li, a native of China, earned her master’s degree in public administration from Cleveland State University in 2014 before starting her career with Hanna Commercial Real Estate’s Corporate Services Group in downtown Cleveland.
She and other Friends describe Cleveland as a city that deserves to be better known around the world.
“Cleveland has been my home for the last 10 years, and there is no place as close to my heart,” said Omar Kurdi, the vice president of the Friends of Global Cleveland.
Kurdi, who holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Jordan, earned his bachelor’s degree in international relations from Cleveland State University in 2013 before starting his career in public relations and eventually becoming the CEO of Friends for Life Rehabilitation Services, an agency that provides services for adults with disabilities.
“Many of my friends who came as international students are now proud Clevelanders with thriving careers,” he said. “If this does not scream to the world that Cleveland is great, then I don’t know what will.”
More than 6,000 international students will arrive this fall at colleges and universities like CSU, Case Western Reserve, John Carroll, Kent State, Akron, Baldwin Wallace and Oberlin. Economic development experts say they could offer an advantage in the global economy. Compared to their native-born classmates, international student are more likely to:
- Earn degrees in the in-demand STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math
- Be awarded a patent for an invention
- Be bilingual or multilingual
- Have contacts in global markets
Research also shows that Northeast Ohio could do a better job connecting with this talent source. According to a 2015 study commissioned by the Ohio Board of Regents, the region retains less than 40 percent of its international students. The national average is 45 percent.
By lifting the retention rate to 50 percent—which is not uncommon for major cities--the region would benefit from increased population, a better-educated workforce and job creation, researchers concluded.
“It starts with a welcome,” said Joe Cimperman, the president of Global Cleveland. “These are some of brightest minds from China, India, Israel, the Middle East and Europe. We want them to know they are welcome here and can build their lives here. We want their talent, we want their drive, and we want the companies and inventions they are going to create. It starts with a welcome.”
InterCLE runs from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday, September 9 at the Global Center, 1 St. Clair Avenue.
Marian Wright Edelman Wins 2017 Inamori Ethics Prize
Marian Wright Edelman, advocate for children’s rights and the disadvantaged, chosen for 2017 Inamori Ethics Prize
A Washington Post profile of Marian Wright Edelman describes a scene from 1967 in which she, as a 27-year-old civil rights attorney, led Sen. Robert F. Kennedy through the Mississippi Delta to meet sharecroppers. She wanted him to see their dire conditions first-hand—especially the starving children.
Edelman “watched him try for five minutes to poke and tickle a listless baby,” she recalled for the story. “The hungry child did not respond.”
Fifty years later, the founder and president of the Washington, D.C.-based Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), which grew out of the Civil Rights Movement, remains a fierce advocate for the nation’s poor, and especially children’s rights.
For her life’s work, the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence at Case Western Reserve University has chosen Edelman for the 2017 Inamori Ethics Prize, awarded annually since 2008 to honor an individual for significant and lasting contributions to ethical leadership on the global stage.
Case Western Reserve will present the 2017 Inamori Ethics Prize to Edelman during Inamori Center events on the Case Western Reserve campus, Sept. 14-15.
“Marian Wright Edelman is a hugely inspirational change agent who has been indefatigable and remarkably effective in her efforts to improve lives, especially the lives of children,” Inamori Center Director Shannon French, the Inamori Professor in Ethics and a professor at the School of Law and in the Department of Philosophy, said today in announcing the center’s 2017 prize winner.
A champion for children
Edelman grew up in South Carolina, the youngest of five children of a Baptist preacher who taught her early on about the importance of serving others and pursuing an education.
Under Edelman’s leadership, the nonprofit CDF, which she established in 1973, has become the nation’s leading advocacy organization for children and families, championing policies and programs to lift children from poverty, protect them from abuse and neglect and ensure their access to health care and quality education.
Recognized for her tireless work
Edelman has received more than 100 honorary degrees and many awards, including the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Prize, the Heinz Award and a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship.
In 2000, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award for her writings.
Edelman serves on the board of the Robin Hood Foundation and the Association to Benefit Children, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Inamori Center was endowed by a generous gift from Kazuo Inamori, who established Kyocera Corp. and is a global telecommunications leader and founder of the Inamori Foundation that presents the annual Kyoto Prize in Kyoto, Japan.
Good Read: The 82nd Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards
Good Read: The 82nd Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards
Karan Mahajan & the Professional Book Nerds Podcast
Now in its 82nd year, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards remain the only American book prize focusing on works that address racism and equity. Administered by the Cleveland Foundation, the awards have broadened their horizon in recent years to recognize international works of literature that fit the mission that Cleveland poet and philanthropist Edith Anisfield Wolf had in mind when she established the prize in 1935.
Among the quintet of 2017 honorees is Karan Mahajan, whose book, The Association of Small Bombs, was named one of the 10 best titles of 2016 by The New York Times. Just his second novel, Mahajan also received the Bard Fiction Prize for his work detailing how young men invested in forcing change in India choose to air their grievances and how that plays out in the political realm.
As part of the upcoming 2017 Book Week activities, Mahajan will be the featured guest at a live taping of the Professional Book Nerds Podcast with hosts – and OverDrive staff librarians – Jill Grunenwald and Adam Sockel.
Event Information
Friday, Sept. 8 – 1:00 p.m.
Cuyahoga County Public Library
South Euclid-Lyndhurst Branch
1876 S. Green Rd.
South Euclid, OH 44121
The event is free, but registration is recommended. Visit www.cuyahogalibrary.org/Events to reserve your spot today.
For more information on Cleveland Book Week (#CBW2017) and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards (#AWBA2017), visit www.clevelandfoundation.org/news/book-week/.
***Library event exact link for social or if newsletter is emailed: https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/Events/Event-Results/Event-Detail.aspx?id=129622
*Karan Mahajan Author Photo credit Molly Winters
Community Partner: The Cleveland Leadership Center
Leadership Cleveland trains young leaders, too
The Cleveland Leadership Center is known for its programs that give senior- and mid-career leaders the knowledge and skills to enhance their community impact, such as Leadership Cleveland and Cleveland Bridge Builders. But the nonprofit center, a Global Cleveland community partner, extends its civic training to emerging leaders as well.
Young professionals who want to explore how to make a positive difference in their workplace and community can climb aboard OnBoard Cleveland.
OnBoard is a leadership and civic development experience tailored for early-career professionals. It’s designed to enhance communication skills, strengthen workplace presence, build an appreciation of local assets and an awareness of the civic realm, and build connections among employees, their organizations and opportunities to become involved in the community.
Through the OnBoard experience, participants also come to better understand critical community issues, learn collaborative leadership skills to address those issues, and find new ways to connect with civic opportunities that align with personal interests and talents.
Here’s what some recent participants said about the program:
- “OnBoard serves as a launchpad for early career professionals to develop professionally and engage civically. It gives participants the knowledge they need and mentors their skills so they can become effective members of the community.”
- “A program where I get to learn more about Cleveland's civic landscape as well as meet like-minded young professionals and network with important ‘movers and shakers’."
- “Professionally, nothing beats learning to communicate effectively with others, opening oneself up to new experiences and gaining knowledge of things that are important to you.”
The next cohort of OnBoard will launch in 2019, but those interested should contact Jill Pecoraro now for information about the application process, at (216) 592-2226 or [email protected].
OnBoard is one of several transformative experiences offered by Cleveland Leadership Center to connect, inspire and challenge individuals of all ages to make a positive community impact. For details, visit www.cleveleads.org or call (216) 592-2426.
