How to... Respond to a LinkedIn invitation without accepting

Posted by Claire White ¦ Business Skills ¦ Marketing

LinkedIn have been at it again! It seems every time you look at their platform they've made another change, usually resulting in us not being able to find the most frequently used feature!

It does make me wonder if the 'brains' behind these apps realise that they're supposed to save, and not cost, us time!  I realise it's important that they continually improve their service, but surely it's better to launch a lot of changes with a big fanfare than consistently sneak in minor changes that cause major headaches.

Rant over...

For those of us who use LinkedIn as a way of building a meaningful network of legitimate contacts (rather than those who seem to view it as just another social media platform with bragging rights for huge numbers of followers) the ability to reply to an invitation to connect, before accepting the request, is really useful. But you guessed it... it's moved. Here's a quick guide to unveil it from its new hiding place.

Responding to a LinkedIn Invitation Without Connecting

1. Login to your LinkedIn account
 

2. Hover over the Grow My Network Icon    at the top right of the LinkedIn window and click on Pending Invitations. The red number on the icon denotes how many invitations are pending right now.
 

3. Your pending invitations will appear as little contact cards, so for the one you want to respond to, you can click on Ignore or Accept, or on the little 'back arrow' in the top right corner to Reply without accepting.

Please note, I don't usually connect with dogs, but you've got admit my example is cute (and she really is mine!)

4. When you click on Reply you'll get a box to write a message in and can attach pictures, files and even trendy little emoticons (that to be honest seem really incongruent with LinkedIn's brand!)

So there you have it. Everything you need to know to be able to respond to a LinkedIn invitation to connect, before accepting. At least until they hide it somewhere else...

Have any of your favourite LinkedIn functions disappeared? If you're pulling your hair out trying to find them, or are simply intrigued as to where they've gone, drop me a line and I'll do my best to help.

Claire White
Business Support & Development Partner

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