Oh this tricky thing called marketing... How absolutely NOT to do it on LinkedIn

'Failure' photo (c) 2012, StormKatt - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

I would like to share something from my own experience here. Some time ago a translation agency representative sent me a connection request on LinkedIn. I accepted it. The same day I got an email from another person working with that agency where more details about the company were given. Well, I read that message and forgot about it pretty soon... Until a few days later I got another message from the same agency about quality assurance in their company. In the message, they just wrote all about how great they are again.
The problem was I couldn't understand two things:

1. Why they sent me those messages. If you look at my LinkedIn profile you will notice that I have two current positions: one is Head of Sharp End Training Russia and the other is freelance translator. The author of the message didn't say whether they contacted me as a translator, or whether that was a sales pitch for me as a member of Sharp End Training team. Then a month later I got yet another message speaking this time about CAT tools used in their company. And again, nothing said about why they are sending the message to me.
2. I couldn't understand what they want me to do. All those messages just talk about how great they are. But they are not saying anything about how they want to help me. Or maybe they want me as a translator to work with them? I still have no clue.

What are the most hilarious marketing mistakes you've seen people make on LinkedIn? As much as I like the words of Melanie Hope, I am a big fan of the saying "Learn wisdom by the follies of others". So let's learn together!

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