When you can’t keep your professional life fresh by going to work or networking events, it’s time for those LinkedIn efforts to shine! And hey, you’ve gotten pretty good by now, even if you’ve never used LinkedIn before or you’ve let your profile languish. You’re making new connections, sharing relevant articles, and posting a profile picture that actually looks like you—and it’s even a professional head shot instead of a cropped vacation photo! So while you may have the basics down, like, you know not to trash your coworkers or post photos of your charcuterie board, you may still be annoying your network with at least one of these four LinkedIn mistakes:

1. Sending generic connection requests. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn”: how serious would you take this generic invitation, especially if it’s from someone you don’t know? What’s to say this person didn’t spam 10,000 people with the same request (and then won’t go on to send you spam or steal your identity)? If you genuinely want to add a connection, customize the invitation even to say, “Hi Carrie! Let’s link in!” A generic invitation is not only lazy, it’s a missed opportunity to reinforce a relationship, remind someone how you met, or pitch a connection to someone you don’t know at all—never mind that a customized invitation just makes someone feel special. And you want to get noticed on LinkedIn!
2. Mass-requesting recommendations and endorsements. When it comes to recommendations and endorsements, are you swinging at anything that moves? That’s not likely to yield quality results, and it is very likely to annoy your connections who may not be able to attest to your work. When you want a recommendation or endorsement, choose specific people who know your work well (think, bosses, project leaders, close coworkers), then customize the message. Try ,“Would you take a look at my skills and endorse any you think are appropriate?” instead of the auto-generated, “Can you endorse my networking skills?”
3. Updating your profile with dozens of notifications. If your profile is set to share updates with your network, your connections will get a notification every time you make a profile change. Add a new photo? Notification. Add to your certifications? Notification. Update your headline? Notification. Now imagine you’re doing a major profile overhaul where every tiny change is communicated—that’s a lot of notifications, and often a dead giveaway that you are looking for a new job. So when you’re giving your page a facelift, temporarily disable your notifications: On your Account Settings & Privacy page (found under your profile picture), click Privacy, then under Sharing Profile Edits, click “No”—just be sure to click back to “Yes” when you’re done.
4. Sending random connection requests to strangers. You don’t know Luz personally, but you’ve long admired her work in your industry and you’d love to add her as a professional connection. You send out one of those generic “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” invitations . . . and you wonder why Luz doesn’t accept. Well you haven’t told her anything about yourself or why you want to connect! What’s to say you are not a spammer or identity thief?! If you want to connect with a stranger, tell them why you’re contacting them so they can make an informed decision about you.

While we’re all in this together, there is no better time to forge a solid network of professional connections. But it does help not to be the irritating one in the bunch, so curb any of those annoying mistakes you might have been making. When in doubt, remember, it does your career no good if your connections hide your posts!