I do a lot of business networking and use LinkedIn for a great deal of my online activity.
Yesterday I accepted an invitation to connect from a sales guy with an established - and respected - local firm of property lawyers and sent my standard message - "Thanks for the connect, good to 'meet' you, happy to get together for coffee if you ever feel we could help you' type of thing.
He messaged me back saying: "Yes great, where do you live? I'm out in Local Town later."
I thought that was inappropriate but I didn't want to be rude and ignore him so I sent a reply this morning that said "I hope you had a pleasant evening. Our offices are in Nearby Village."
About an hour ago I got another message that says: "Yes, great thanks. What's up, didn't you fancy coming out?"
And I've just received another that says: "You have a great smile." (Presumably from my profile photo.)
This is definitely outside accepted boundaries. I'm thinking maybe he's just some sales kid trying to make contacts and doesn't realise he's being inappropriate, as the firm isn't some fly-by-night cowboy business. I also wouldn't mind an "in" to work with them, but I'm not pursuing it through this guy.
Is it rude if I just ignore these last two messages or should I respond but make it clear he's behaviour isn't acceptable?