I have written lots of blog posts about what to do when someone sends you a connection request on LinkedIn. I have also written blog posts on how to respond if you’re not sure who the connection request is from, and how to send a connection request on LinkedIn too.

However it seems that Wayne, a Computer Games Professional from Warrington may not have seen my blog posts on these topics. What makes me say that?

I recently received a connection request on Linkedin from Wayne. There was no personalised message included so instead of accepting his connection request, as I didn’t know who he was, I sent a message instead;

Good Morning Wayne,

I hope you enjoyed your bank holiday weekend and managed to squeeze in some time to relax?

Thank you for your recent connection request via LinkedIn. I have not yet clicked ‘accept’. This is because there was no personalised message so I am not sure what grabbed your attention or the reason you would like to connect with me?

I do hope to hear from you soon so we can network further and connect.

In the meantime, here is a link to a recent blog post that I wrote, warning of another spam email going around. I hope you find the blog post to be useful.

Once again, I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Many Thanks,

Hazel.

Within 2 minutes I had a reply from Wayne. It was an emoji of a smiley face.

I responded with a question mark.

To which Wayne responded twice, within 1 minute, with the same Gif. The Gif was, what I can only describe as a smiling ‘poo head’ in striped pyjamas waving at me.

I will be honest and confirm that I had never had this as a response to questions before. So I responded with. “Erm…. is that a poo head waving at me? I am unsure what that means and how it answers my questions?”

Here we are, 3 hours later and no reply. I have decided that perhaps this isn’t a connection I require on LinkedIn. However, what is interesting is that we have 10 mutual connections. This could mean one of three things;

  1. These mutual connections got a better response than me?
  2. These mutual connections enjoy smiling and waving poo heads?
  3. These mutual connections don’t check who they are connecting with on LinkedIn

Would you connect with Wayne the Computer Games Professional from Warrington aka: Smiling, Waving Poo Head man? If so, what benefit do you think this would bring to you and your business on LinkedIn?