How do you reach out to someone on LinkedIn? You send a message, of course. But what kind of message should you send? You have two options: a regular ol' LinkedIn Message or a fancier InMail. Both accomplish the same thing in the end—getting your communication in front of the eyes of whoever you're trying to reach (or recruit)—but each comes with certain peculiarities.
(With either technique, you can use Magical to create highly customized, templated messages when reaching out to a lot of people at once, but more on that in a bit.)
When should you send a basic LinkedIn Message?
For most people, a simple, standard LinkedIn Message is all you need. Fire up the website, click on the Messaging icon at the top, and get started. There's just one caveat. In order to send a message to someone on LinkedIn, you need to first connect to them. That's workplace parlance for "friend them," as you'll be unable to bug them using this regular method until you and your contact are LinkedIn buddies.
A LinkedIn user can't keep you from sending them a message once you're connected (unless they've blocked you). However, they can make it difficult for you to connect with them; you might need to know their email address, for example, to verify that you're actually someone they know instead of a LinkedIn spammer.
If your messaging needs are time-sensitive, you'll want to make sure you've given yourself enough of a head start to make these connections before reaching out with an official message. But, really, you'll probably want to send a follow-up at this point, as you'll be able to describe the reason you want to establish a virtual work friendship when sending that initial connection request. There's where you'll want to put the meat of your message. Any official "messaging" you do after that should really just be confirming details. (In other words, don't try to establish a connection with a generic or obtuse message, as odds are good the recipient will deny it if they have no idea who you are or what you want.)
When should you send a LinkedIn InMail?
An InMail can reach any LinkedIn user that isn't already blocking these kinds of "super-messages" via their privacy settings. It's the best way to drop into a person's LinkedIn inbox without having to first forge a connection with them. The catch? An InMail isn't free. You can't send them with a basic LinkedIn account, and you get a limited allotment of InMails you can send each month depending on your Premium account type.
However, you'll receive an InMail credit when a recipient replies to your initial message. This means that you'll have to be strategic about using InMails to message people. Blast InMails off to anyone and everyone, and you might go through precious monthly credits unnecessarily. Hit up engaged candidates with a relevant message that gets them to respond, and you won't encounter any issues with LinkedIn's (spam-preventing) limitations.
How to make your LinkedIn messages magical
Whether you're sending a basic LinkedIn Message or a LinkedIn InMail, you're going to want to reach out with something that's relevant, timely, and engaging. That doesn't mean that you can't use a little automation to make sending these messages simpler. If you're reaching out to a batch of LinkedIn users, use Magical to automatically import some of their LinkedIn profile directly into your message. You'll want to do a little customizing around fields like their name, title, or most recent job, but you won't be skipping back and forth between browser tabs with all your copying-and-pasting.
Better still, you can use Magical to create a spreadsheet of potential contacts that you'll hit up with a LinkedIn Message or InMail later. All you need to do is open a single person's LinkedIn profile, open a web-based spreadsheet, and use Magical (via the "//" command) to import various fields across your rows or columns—name, current job title, location, et cetera. After that, you can automatically import all of this data from a new candidate simply by opening a new tab and using the same technique to fill in a single new cell on your spreadsheet. Magical takes care of the rest, and you'll have a brand-new sourcing list set up in mere minutes, rather than the hour(s) of copying and pasting you'd otherwise "enjoy."
