Why does LinkedIn require an email address when I invite someone? Cuz you’re on the Linkedin IDK list.

Bummer. You used to invite people to join you on LinkedIn by using their name, and now you have to use their email address.

I'll tell you why

I'll tell you how to fix it

I’ll tell you how to find out who IDKed you

I'm pretty cool

When you invite someone, they have the opportunity to say "I don't know" you. If just FIVE people say that, you get put on LinkedIn’s blacklist. At that point, you have to put in someone’s email address in order to invite them, and if you are trying to get in touch with a

high school friend

college friend or roommate

colleague from years ago

military associate

et cetera

you probably don’t have their email address.

Here’s how you fix it:

Send an apology to LinkedIn’s customer service at cs@linkedin.com, and they will let you off the hook … once. You get five more IDKs. After that, there’s another way, but LinkedIn wouldn’t like it, so you have to send me an email with the subject line “secret way to get off IDK list”, and I’ll send it to you.

Here’s how you find out who said IDK to your invitation on LinkedIn:

Go to your LinkedIn home page
Expand the Inbox on the left if it isn’t expanded
Click Invitations
On the Invitations page, click Sent in the upper right to see the Invitations that you’ve sent
Click Status just below it to sort by status
Now you want to look for the status “Doesn’t Know”, but it will be in alphabetical order in the middle of the following:
- Accepted
- Bounced
- Doesn’t Know
- Replaced
- Sent
You have to click the numbers at the bottom of the page after the word Page
- they don’t have a next button
- if you sent a lot of invitations, start by looking halfway through your pages

Find the people that IDKed you, and beat them with a stick. Then I’ll give you the names of the people that IDKed me, and you can beat them with the same stick.

If you get them to invite you, LinkedIn supposedly removes them from your IDK count.

Good luck, and if this is unclear or could be improved, email me at patweb@patrickomalley.com

My 2 minute demo video:

For more information about booking Patrick O'Malley as a Linkedin speaker, email patweb@patrickomalley.com or call 617-PATRICK, i.e. 617-728-7425.

Note that

I do NOT work for LinkedIn Corporation, and am not affiliated with LinkedIn Corporation in any way.
LinkedIn is not spelled Linked In