I'm Just Sayin

When you reach out to people on LinkedIn - and there are a lot of good reasons to do that -- I hope you don't write this in your message:

Liz, Your name came up in connection with workplace issues, and I thought it would be worthwhile for both of us to get acquainted. I recently released a plan that would completely redefine [beep bop biddim boddem, waddem chu]. I invite you to take a look at my work, which is available at the following: [yada yada, and it's a PDF!] I think you will find the work very interesting. I look forward to hearing from you.

Now seriously, God bless this person and all, but the message basically says "You don't know me from Adam; please read a bunch of stuff I wrote." So I write back to say

Thanks for writing; you are welcome to send me an email and let me know more about you.

I was hoping the person would send me some specifics on what s/he thought s/he and I might do together, or something. But, no. Here's what I get back (this time, without the url):

Liz, Thank you for the reply. As you can see from my profile, I have had a pretty busy career. Right now I am working to build awareness for my [bada bing, bada boom] work. If you have read or plan to read about my work, you will see how [Coke, the choice of a new generation] as I have described would have a major impact on the quality of life for all workers. I look forward to hear your view on my work.

My views! My views on the work. No offense, but really. I'm just sayin....whaaaa? This is not the way to do it. You want to know how to do it? THIS is how we do it.