4 mistakes smart people avoid in a networking email

4 mistakes smart people avoid in a networking email4 mistakes smart people avoid in a networking emailWriting a networking email cana vulnerable, awkward process where theres an inherent power imbalance youre emailing someone, oftena stranger with no partieal investment in you, aboutsomething you want that they have.We know its important to get over our fears, because successful networking can result in valuable information and connections.Unfortunately, rejection - or worse, silence - is too often the result of a badly written networking email. Too many of us are hearing crickets to our emails due to easily fixable mistakes we make in our networking requests.The good news is the mistakes we make really are very easily fixable.As someone who has written bad, ramblingnetworking emails that still make me blush,Im going to teach you to succeed where I have failed by avoiding these four clear pitfalls.1. Asking pick someones brainWhile Id like to pick your brain is a popular casual ope ning, its one of the worst things you can say. Vaguely asking to pick someones brain puts the burden on the recipient to be your Oracle of Delphi about why youre contacting them. It also means youre treating them as someone youre going to take things from - their actual brainpower - without offering anything in return.Besides being unhelpful to both sender and recipient, the metaphor of asking to pick someones brain can sound vaguely menacing.Heres how to do it better Know what you want and be specific about why youre contacting this person. Do you want an informational interview, an email contact, career advice, or to become friends with this person? Say so. Your recipient will breathe a sigh of relief at being able to help - which most people would like to do - without being treated as a lab rat for your own career plans.2. Stressing the fact that youre a strangerHumans are alike on some level, were a little wary of strangers. People who are successful with large social networ ks are even more likely to depend on referrals or acquaintances to meet more people their dance cards are already full.Thats why theres no benefit, and no charm, in pointing out that they dont know you from Adam. Even if this person has no reason to remember your existence, dont discount yourself by saying, you may leid remember me butYes, you may be strangers, but why remind the recipient that youre basically strangers with no reason to talk to each other. As The Musenotes, theres no requirement that you lead with the fact that its been a while. If your note is thoughtful and brief, thats generally all you need.Instead, find something you may have in common to talk about, even if thats just how much you admire the recipients work. People love talking about themselves. Its okay to open a networking email with sincere praise.If youd like to find more things to talk about in these emails, you can do as my most organized friend did in his unemployment. This friend of mine kept an Excel spreadsheet of networking interactions he made during his job hunt, complete with time stamps and a memorable anecdote the interaction produced. That way, when he followed up with a networking email weeks or months later, he could remind the recipient how, say, they both grew up in Lake Forest, Illinois and make the email more personal.Its a smart way to turn a potentially formal email into a more familiar, human interaction Hey there, we met at last years conference and talked about us both growing up near Chicago Any common festverzinsliches wertpapier will go a long way.3. Baring your soul and your lifes story in an emailThe opposite of formality is oversharing, trying to force intimacy by adding unnecessary facts about our entire lives.It may be tempting tomake this stranger your friend by filling them in on your multi-paragraph lifes story, but if you do that before you know someone - read before they have any reason to care about you - then this attempt at personalizing net working emails will likely backfire.The antidote Be concise. The recipient should be able to quickly scan your email to figure out why youre contacting them.Three short paragraphs at most are a good introduction until the person replies or decides to invest some time in you.People are sifting through endless emails, and if you want yours to be remembered, it needs to be direct. Corporate email users received about 84 emails a day on average in 2015. Save swapping in-depth career stories for if you actually meet up in person.4. A boring, unclearsubject lineThe subject line is the first thing a recipient will read, so you need to be good at grabbing their attention with it.Definitely do not leave the subject line blank - nothing good ever came from a blank subject line - but also dont make it a vague, short bleat like mentoring?Mailchimps researchers found that emails with description won out over trendy lines likesizzling summer bargains that dont have a specific hook or clearly de fine what the email is promoting.Good networking emails like salesperson seeking career advice or reporter with contact request clearly state what the emails going to be about.Pro tip you should use your subject line as your guide on what to include in the email. If its not related to your specific request, leave it out.And if you dont get a response right away, be patient and persistent. People are understandably very busy and a networking email is likely not at the top of their priorities. That being said, its appropriate to follow up if you havent heard anything in a week or two.And the one thing you should do always, always say thank you, afterward if the person helps you- or even if they dont, but make the time to give you some thoughts. It may sound obvious to thank someone, but a surprising number of people forget - and lose a relationship that would have made them more successful. Being nice goes a long way.