Well, let’s see: I am a person who receives on average 200/300 work messages every day (via email and direct messages on Linkedin, without considering Whatsapp and Facebook because there are people who regularly contact me there too). Well, out of these 200/300 messages, five or six are usually trade proposals.
Now, since I read more than one post on Linkedin arguing that not replying to a message or email was a show of bad manners, (the post in question referred specifically to Linkedin), I asked myself and and pondered on this same question.
So:
is it wrong not to reply to all the messages we receive on Linkedin or via email?
I don’t know, in some ways maybe it is, mainly as a matter of good manners.
On the other hand, however, I wouldn’t be so harsh on those who don’t immediately to respond to all these messages, because it is necessary to make some form of distinction.
Follow my train of thought.
Until a short time ago, business proposals were diverted by most enterprises to the classic general mailbox info@…. and, more often than not, ended up being ignored by everyone, or even being sent to the spam folder. Nowadays, thanks to social media such as Linkedin, it is easy to create a direct contact with anyone you want, but this also means that, on the other hand, there is someone receiving a growing number of direct messages which, technically speaking, he or she should reply to. And this in most cases is virtually impossible.
Virtually impossible given that the number of people contacting you via private messages in Linkedin with business proposals are increasing exponentially at the moment. It is undoubtedly a number proportional to the total number of contacts that a person has, but the fact is that this is a dynamic that is occurring more and more often. And I am not saying that this is a bad thing, quite the contrary! I am only saying that it is difficult to respond to everyone, primarily due to a matter of time. Personally I admit that almost always I manage to give my messages a quick read but, generally speaking, it is impossible for me to respond to all the business proposals I receive.
If a person contacts me for different reasons, then this is another matter. Reasons not strictly linked to business.
Something that, in my experience, almost never happens on Linkedin, but often happens via email.
Well,
if a person writes to me because he needs a product or a service, then I feel compelled to reply, even just to say that we are not the right company or to recommend a possible solution.
At least a couple oftimes a week someone writes to me looking for a gear for the oddest of applications: from the starter motor of a Vespa to a wristwatch and so forth. In these cases I am compelled to give them a hand, advise them and, for instance, refer them to a colleague who can help them with their specific request.
