I am obviously not the only one who has noticed the ‘quick replies’ option we have on Gmail, LinkedIn, Instagram and maybe some other social media platforms. I am absolutely thankful for them, I mean, these quick replies have been savers; savers of time, energy, thoughts and so on.
Ever gotten the words like ‘Goodbye’ or ‘Lol’ as suggested replies to what is supposed to be a 'professional' introduction or greeting? Well, I did on LinkedIn and that got me wondering.
Some days ago, I decided to check my messages on LinkedIn and respond to them, and thank God for the quick replies which I usually check to see if they suffice before thinking of a composed response. I noticed that one of the messages had these suggested quick replies; ‘Goodbye’, ‘Lol’, '👍’. I thought those replies were strange so, I read the message again to see why I got those suggestions.
No offense to the sender of the message but for the purpose of this post, it is important that I do this.
Here is the message;
“how r u n nice meeting u, xxxx is my name, I live n work in xxxx (name of state in small letters) n u?”
I began to wonder why LinkedIn would suggest that ‘lol’ or ‘👍’ were suitable replies, or why LinkedIn would suggest an end to the conversation with the response ‘Goodbye’.
Then, I thought the following could be the reasons;
- ‘Lol’ because I think the message looked like a joke.
LinkedIn is a social network for professionals and professional interactions/networking, people have gotten jobs, contracts or built some great networks and business relationships there, so please ‘try’ not to defeat the purpose.
The problem I have with the above message is the way it was typed and not the message itself. Sometimes, we really want to get serious with our profession, career or business and we already have WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and the likes to make jokes and have funny, interesting, personal, unprofessional conversations, so, let’s try to have some form of professionalism on LinkedIn.
Personally, I am there to build relationships that will help in building my person, career or business. This ‘lettered’ type of writing makes it look like you are talking some jargon, I mean what is “how r u n” ???. LinkedIn doesn't understand your message, neither do I 🤷♀️ ‘Lol’ seems like an appropriate response.
- ‘Goodbye’ because that message just clearly showed that you did not intend to have a professional conversation with me.
I try to be polite most times so, I try to hide the fact that I don’t really appreciate ‘lettered’ messages or chats, except they are from people I am really close with. Some of us don’t appreciate this form of writing, then bringing such to LinkedIn doesn't seem nice at all. LinkedIn clearly could not condone this kind of message and had to suggest an end to the conversation. Sadly, as much as ‘Goodbye’ seems unpleasant, it probably is another appropriate response to this message.
- ‘Thumb up 👍’ seems like saying ‘well done’, ‘continue’, ‘you are doing well’ obviously in a mockery form. You are smart, you know what that means.
Now, this post is not just about criticizing someone’s message. In a professional environment, you do not have to be perfect but, you should portray excellence and professionalism in the best way possible.
LinkedIn is one of the social media platforms I am most grateful for, it indeed is a platform for great network opportunities, thousands of people have gotten jobs via this platform, businesses and people have gained visibility with the help of it. The least you can do is to be able to strike a professional or meaningful conversation there. It is a big world of opportunities there. You don’t have to be a grammarian, but try, please try to write your words in full, that’s the least you can do in order not to totally put people off.
Well, I have not responded to the message because I don’t know whether to use any of the quick replies suggested or to take my time to construct a polite response (this won’t be fair on me, as the sender obviously did not take his time to construct a nice message to me).
I will appreciate suggestions at this point.
What do you honestly think? Is Linkedin just mean for suggesting those replies or does the sender really deserve such?
I am not a LinkedIn guru but I intend to make the most of it, so should you.
Thank you for reading 😚😚😚. Look forward to more contents and make comments please 🤗🤗
~ Olajumoke
Thank you! I should try that and if after that he doesn't get the message, I just might not respond again 🤦♀️
Interesting!
I guess social media users forget that LinkedIn is the professional subset of the social media world.
When I get messages like that, I sometimes reply in a professional tone hoping that they get the underlying message in my reply. You could try that! “Lol”
@Precious I do the same too. I wonder why a person will not just take his/her time to write well especially when there is no familiarity between him and the receipt. It just clearly shows how meaningless that conversation would turn out eventually.
This is quite an interesting read. For me, I don't appreciate when people cannot type their words in full when sending me a message. So I just ignore those kind of messages especially if it's from a stranger though.