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Nudge a contact with a poke

A poke makes your contact's LinkedIn notify them of a new message from you, without leaving a message in the conversation. It's a light way to bring a quiet thread back to their attention.

Before you start

  • You need an existing conversation with the contact. A poke travels through that conversation, so it can't start a new one.

Steps

  1. Open the conversation from Inbox → Messaging.
  2. Click the hand icon in the toolbar under the message field. Its tooltip reads Send a poke.
  3. Wait for the confirmation 👋 Poke sent!.

The conversation now shows a 👋 Poke sent bubble at that point in the thread.

How it works

Swimlane sends a very short message on your behalf, then withdraws it about a second and a half later:

  • If your Swimlane language is French, the message is Salut, est-ce que. Otherwise it's Hey, do.
  • LinkedIn notifies the contact as soon as the message is sent. Once it's withdrawn, the text no longer stays in the conversation.
  • Swimlane remembers the poke, so in your inbox the withdrawn message shows as 👋 Poke sent instead of Message deleted.

Good to know

  • If the withdrawal fails, the short message stays visible to your contact. The poke itself still counts as sent.
  • Poke in a campaign. Automated sequences can include a poke step too. This article covers the manual poke in the inbox.
  • Use it sparingly. A poke works because it's unexpected. Sent repeatedly to the same person, it quickly looks like spam. Wait several days of silence before a poke, and follow with a real message if they react.
  • No reaction? Don't insist. Set a reminder instead and come back later with something useful to say (see Set a reminder on a conversation).

Troubleshooting

  • "Failed to send poke": most often there is no conversation with this contact yet. Send a first message instead. It can also mean LinkedIn couldn't be reached. Try again in a moment.
  • The hand icon is greyed out: a message or a poke is still being sent, so wait for it to finish. The whole toolbar is also locked while LinkedIn waits for a reply to your InMail.

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