Sending auto-responses to your connections? Don't!
Auto-responses! We’ve all gotten them. At times via email, some people send Twitter DMs, and others send a reply via LinkedIn message. What are they? A blanket message, auto-responses sent to everyone they connect with no matter what their background is or who they are.
Are you personalizing your messages to your connections?
Yesterday a new LinkedIn connection sent me a message. She invited me to a weekly speaking event, cost to me $15. This week’s topic? Dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Though my family members suffered from this disease, that information is not on my LinkedIn profile and I didn’t connect with her because I needed that service.
Truthfully, I connected with her as I do others who I may not know personally. Many people connect before they hire me to write their resumes. Others like being connected to me so they can read my latest blog post and other pertinent job search information.
Auto-responses say you didn’t think about the message or the people
The problem with her message is it wasn’t personalized or show she even cared. She wanted more people at her event. If I created auto-responses to my LinkedIn or other platforms suggesting people should buy my resume writing or LinkedIn profile writing services, it would be pretty silly! Why? My networks are a mix of people.
Some connections later become my clients but a percentage of my connections are other resume writers and career coaches. Pitching them with my services with auto-responses would be rude and at best they would ignore my messages, at worst they would be annoyed.
Are you personalizing your job search messages?
All kinds of people and businesses make this mistake. They treat social media as a platform to collect emails or send backdoor messages to people without making an effort to personalize and target the message.
People even do this in job search. They send the same information to every job posting. Next, they bombard hiring managers with blanket emails (auto-responses). When they make no effort to personalize and focus the message, AND wonder why there is no response.
As automated as job search has become, you don’t want to send the same information to everyone.
Your success rate increases when you actually take the time to communicate. Tell the recipient you value them enough to take the time to respond to their own needs. Many people ask if they can just get a generic cover letter. After I explain targeting and focusing the cover letter for specific jobs, I still am asked for the generic: “but I just want one I can send to everyone!”
The person who complains they are not getting responses in their job search generally has two problems. The language in their resume and cover letter don’t describe their value and 2.) they aren’t personalizing their messages.
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Julie Walraven
Professional Resume Writer
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