Yay! Let’s join 50 groups just because we can and it’s free and everyone else has joined them! Follow the crowd mentality is common. I’m yet to have a positive experience as a member of a group, whether an exclusive or non-exclusive group. Self-promotion, useless posts, and ‘quick hit’ requests are common i.e. “I’m selling this – want one?” How can everyone be a member of the same alumni? Tip: Turn off notifications from groups.
I’ve given up on checking it. The news feed is clogged up with 95% of jargon, irrelevant rants, promotional messages and rehashed articles. I’m sick of recruiters posting requests to fill jobs all day, every day for the same jobs. If they were any good they would communicate privately with those who might be willing to help them. Again – a lazy person looking for a quick hit, but I will now ‘black list’ those recruiters from working for me.
There’s also a lack of unique content and people sharing other people’s stuff all the time. I think those who never have an opinion for themselves are not thought leaders by constantly sharing other people’s articles. Yes, please share my stuff – but have a balance of sharing your own thoughts.
There’s an ex-employee who has a warrant outstanding for his arrest and yet he has a glowing profile. People delete the five jobs they’ve had in two years. Recommendations are biased. This leaves the few genuine people remaining without a competitive advantage. The liars look just as good. I’m cautious of people’s profiles and read them sceptically.
If I ask you about a person we share in common and you don’t know them or why you are connected, you’ve just lost huge credibility in my eyes. LinkedIn ‘whores’ are weak networkers and get caught out. People don’t help random people just because you’re a LinkedIn connection.
A LinkedIn connection is becoming less valuable because it’s simply too easy to connect and this damages the value for everyone. I believe that LinkedIn should cap the number of connections a free account holder can have. Users should pay for the privilege of requesting to connect AND accept an invitation to connect. Imagine being charged to connect. All of a sudden, users would think twice before connecting. Even better, what about if users were rated and ranked based on the quality of their activity and were rated by other users.
Inmails are a-plenty and users become bombarded by messages. Recruiters will have no competitive advantage and they will be fishing in the same pond once again. In 2007, I had a distinct advantage as my competitors weren’t on LinkedIn. It’s not unique now nor a secret!
The success of LinkedIn will be driven by the long term integrity of its data. Is LinkedIn becoming Linked-out, going out of fashion or business anytime soon? No chance. Business is booming, the number of users are growing and revenues are heading upwards as is the share price. The effectiveness of LinkedIn is growing with more users and data although along with this growth comes reduced effectiveness, relevance and usefulness. My usage patterns have already changed dramatically and I am a very cautious user now.
Buy LinkedIn shares and sell them in 12 months. Old school principles still apply. There’s no shortcuts to building a meaningful network of long lasting relationships. There’s no quick fix. Use the power of LinkedIn to create more ‘offline’ opportunities to build relationships. LinkedIn is a tool to fast track the ‘online’ into the ‘offline’, and that’s where your real skills come into play. When using LinkedIn, be authentic and contribute meaningfully. Connect with caution and protect your reputation.
I’d be keen to hear your thoughts and let’s see if anyone adds me or deletes me after reading this post!
