Among the wave of internet companies and social media outlets that have arrived onto the scene in recent times, LinkedIn has enjoyed a fairly privileged status given that it strictly had a lot more to do with careers and job hunting/status than the others. The new social media for the employment business, if you will. It wasn't just for fun, this is my career, people!
LinkedIn was serious business mostly for employees initially, not least because employers were way behind on anything social media, and initially, old school executives balked at the idea of using the internet to either advertise a job never mind actually hunt/screen candidates there. It was all so public, somehow. Especially for activities that many companies still often prefer to keep private.
All that changed with the pervasion (you might call it invasion!) of social media into business in general, with old school, old-fashioned marketers squeezed out by the brave new breed of at least semi-trained internet-savvy professionals. I use the term "semi-trained" purposefully, because there were no rules, it was a free for all, and there are still a lot of people out there who, because they set up a Facebook page, and bleat all day on Twitter, feel that they are hip and maybe even can actually call themselves social media gurus. The dreaded lesser-spotted social media web crawling spider-like species!
Opportunistically, such types took great advantage of the evident fear in the faces of executives everywhere, suddenly faced with the pressure of initiating social media campaigns for their brands, and managed to bilk companies out of considerable monies to promote them on media that no one was comfortable with using due to even less understanding of how they were supposed to be used. While social media have served a role, the announcement by General Motors that they were yanking their ad campaigns on Facebook said volumes - the company made public the fact that such promotion was not impacting the number of cars sold.
Opportunistically, such types took great advantage of the evident fear in the faces of executives everywhere, suddenly faced with the pressure of initiating social media campaigns for their brands, and managed to bilk companies out of considerable monies to promote them on media that no one was comfortable with using due to even less understanding of how they were supposed to be used. While social media have served a role, the announcement by General Motors that they were yanking their ad campaigns on Facebook said volumes - the company made public the fact that such promotion was not impacting the number of cars sold.
Anyway, now LinkedIn has become all grown-up - employers, headhunters and job-seekers alike all co-exist happily (really?!) under one virtual roof, and LinkedIn even went public a while back. Like Facebook, the valuation was either "rich" (if one is being kind) or "ridiculous" (if one is being real) with their market cap being somewhere around $8-9B. I find it to be staggeringly optimistic, not least as that number represents at least 20X their revenues for 2011, for example. I don't see anywhere near that kind of valuation. But you can't blame 'em for riding the wave, right?
One of the earliest mistakes various levels of people made was linking (for want of another word!) all of their social media accounts, so everything they spouted on Twits or FB would also appear on their professional LinkedIn page. While this may have been fine for a senior executive (read, "older") who only ever used social media for his company's work, it was not fine for almost all employees, especially the dumb ones.
Even if you separate your social media presence from your employer's, they can still scan your activity and disapprove of it - but at least you ain't "linked"and "synced". Conversely, if in order to appear professionally cool, you want to have your employer's way cooler brand on your Twits or FB descriptor, then accept the price for doing so, and keep the message aligned with their brand, not yours. Make a choice, people, because you cannot easily do both.
So, frankly, LinkedIn should have nothing to do with employee FB and Twits accounts, in most cases. However, in order to keep up with the others, LinkedIn has encouraged thought leaders (and now anyone who thinks they have something relevant to say) to promote themselves on the site, and share their tweets, blogs and other emissions on LinkedIn as well as on all the other sites they already spout on. I find it redundant, personally, in all but the most rare of examples. LinkedIn was not meant to be about reading so-and-so's blog post - I have his blog for that! I don't need to read so-and-so spouting about her brand strategy on LinkedIn, as I can see it on heir website and FB page and blog. LinkedIn was designed to be for the job seeker, the employee, and the employer promoting their company as a great place to work.
Lines are getting too blurry again, and LinkedIn has started to get a bit too "social media" and a lot less functional as a professional career and skills presentation site. But frankly, it has already become dysfunctional and abused, to the point where someone's number of connections is almost meaningless to anyone seriously looking for quality individuals. Just like their kids' Twits and FB pages, the aging, graying executives have suddenly tuned in and turned on to LinkedIn and have started their abuse (based on their seniority) of the "connections" system.
This is something which has caused many of us to simultaneously "drop out". After years of having a two line LinkedIn presence with no photo, they suddenly appear interested in you, seeking to connect, so that they can subsequently hoover up your contact list. It's way easier than sitting in an office trying to remember all the people they might have done business with or brushed shoulders with over the years, and such activity was encouraged by the LinkedIn system. Once your contact list has been sucked up, they move onto the next "victim" until they are at the magical 500+ connections level - "hey people, I've arrived!" All of those who vainly hoped this new high level connection was going to lead to a new job were routinely disappointed. It's all about the "me-myself-and-I", and surely not about you.
There are essentially four main species on LinkedIn: your real life friends (who in many cases might not be appropriate for this particular site); people who you (have) work(ed) with (who therefore are truly colleagues, but may/may not be actual "friends"); people who know someone on your contact list and can therefore scan you as a new "recruit" (also known as the "scavengers"); and last, but by all means least, the most annoying sub-type of scavenger -headhunters. Incongruously, they are always sniffing around you when you are in a job, yet don't want to lose 30 precious seconds on you when you are out of one!
For sure, LinkedIn is no real place for real friends, unless they work in the same functional area as you do, and we have FB and Twits berths for them. People one works/has worked with are truly eligible and even if they are not our biggest fans, or we theirs, they fit into the deal. We have worked together and we can apparently support the credentials of the other. That works. Notwithstanding the fact that someone that has been adversarial in the workplace is probably a spy, and/or may even copy/clone your unique promotional style. But what can you do? Anyone watching reasonably closely gets to see who is the organ grinder, and who is the monkey.
The scavengers are the bottom feeders that are ruining the site. The second you make a new connection, following a meeting or conference, and all of their contacts see you are newly added, the shameless among them arrogantly send you an invite to connect, even when you have no idea who they are. LinkedIn used to encourage this behavior just like FB used to encourage sharing your private information and photos with anyone who wanted it, but they have changed their tone somewhat. On LinkedIn today, when you ignore/delete an invite, something which I find really interesting is that there is now a pop-up which classifies the reason for so doing as "I don't know this person". Wow! So therefore, we are not supposed to be inviting connections or accepting invites from people we don't know and never met?! Now there's a new concept!
It actually has become one small step up from spam. After making a new connection recently, with someone I do know, I received an invite from a senior colleague of that person with a truly ridiculous (if not downright nauseating) supposedly "personal" (yet generic) invite that read "I want to connect with you on LinkedIn, and look forward to meeting you again!"- this, from someone who I have never met? It's terrifically insulting! But it's assumed on LinkedIn that people are so desperate to be known, to be loved, to be "connected", that they will add numbers to another's bigger pile, in the vain hope of getting there themselves or getting that new job.
One needs to value one's own self. As opposed to virtual self-aggrandizement, by the meaningless vacuuming up of people who one doesn't know, doesn't care for, will never help and probably will never even meet - all to make one look hot, FB style, because you have bigger numbers than most, or than your peers. It's high school FB stuff for supposed grown-ups. One needs to refuse to be a scavenger and to deny these scavengers access to one's page, and moreover, or particularly, access to one's real colleagues. They only want you for what you can give them - never the other way around. It's insulting and demeaning, and extremely selfish.
"Ask not what your connections can do for you, but ask what you can do for your connections!"
Hold yourself in higher esteem. Don''t be yet another social media sheep. Following the (misguided) herd. Be yourself, be proud of who you are, and value your contact list highly. It is your professional currency. It should never be given away easily, not least to some socioprofessional climber, or even to a more senior person who almost wants to intimidate you into allowing them access to your full profile and list. The "smart" thinking is: "Well, they are quite powerful, so I've got no choice, right?"
Wrong. One always has a choice. You increase your value by so doing, in many ways. Sure, it may take longer for you to reach some magic number that fits you, but trust me, the really smart people know what "500+ connections" usually means. That is, that it's usually meaningless. It's completely image over content. But isn't that what LinkedIn has become, right now? More BS about how "great" you are, and how "popular" you also are, because of how many "friends" or followers you appear to have?! It aligned with the FB model, which was a serious error.
It's becoming the kids' FB page for grown-ups, without the bullying and scratching. Theoretically. Those of you with individuality, personality, uniqueness and talent should invest for the long term, and create a LinkedIn profile and list that has real value and meaning; one that will carry you a lot further in your professional life than the copycat wannabe-guru scavengers and their 500+ connections. I had to laugh when a female colleague who is among my LinkedIn connections, said recently -
"LinkedIn? You mean match.com for professionals?! It's more of a cruising and stalking site these days, than anything to do with getting a job!"
It's a social media virus that's spreading rapidly, even among your so-called friends and colleagues. The ones who cling to you when you are a success are rarely your real deal, especially as they are often gone when you go down. Do yourself proud, don't be afraid to stand alone, stay above the noise and the mess and the fury, and remain firm in the belief that you will ultimately look stronger than the masses for refusing to follow, as they all do. Having the courage to say "no" has somehow become devalued, having the class to remain somewhat "private" has been made to seem almost weird, and having the smarts to dictate how you use and value the exclusiveness of your online presence is deemed egotistic when it doesn't follow the so-called "rules".
It's laughable! Believe me, one sleeps much better at night for neither being a copycat nor a sheep. The days of the individual are not behind us, and irrespective of the invasiveness of social media (and that now includes LinkedIn in a big way), staying true to oneself is often the best medicine in this selfish, abusive, totally public online life we feel pressured into joining. We are free to decide, and one can have it all.
So by all means LinkIn, but turn off a lot of the public aspects of your online identity that you do not wish to share with the public, and be totally prepared to tune out all the noise and all the pressure/abuse that the sheep foist onto you. When it came to LSD, the mantra was tune in, turn on and drop out, but when it comes to LinkedIn, I say Link in, turn off and tune out! I don't know anyone who ever got a job via LinkedIn, and no one I have asked over the last few years has said that they did.
Guess what? I just got a brand new shiny job myself while refusing to play the traditional game, or in my opinion, by playing it better, and smarter, and that's proof positive that it still does work! So let's hear it for the individual, who will never become one of the sheep that the marketers dream we all can be. In fact, aren't sheep supposed to be more useful to send us off into dreamland? For sure, by the time you have counted even a fraction of them on LinkedIn, you are already off in la-la land!
This is something which has caused many of us to simultaneously "drop out". After years of having a two line LinkedIn presence with no photo, they suddenly appear interested in you, seeking to connect, so that they can subsequently hoover up your contact list. It's way easier than sitting in an office trying to remember all the people they might have done business with or brushed shoulders with over the years, and such activity was encouraged by the LinkedIn system. Once your contact list has been sucked up, they move onto the next "victim" until they are at the magical 500+ connections level - "hey people, I've arrived!" All of those who vainly hoped this new high level connection was going to lead to a new job were routinely disappointed. It's all about the "me-myself-and-I", and surely not about you.
There are essentially four main species on LinkedIn: your real life friends (who in many cases might not be appropriate for this particular site); people who you (have) work(ed) with (who therefore are truly colleagues, but may/may not be actual "friends"); people who know someone on your contact list and can therefore scan you as a new "recruit" (also known as the "scavengers"); and last, but by all means least, the most annoying sub-type of scavenger -headhunters. Incongruously, they are always sniffing around you when you are in a job, yet don't want to lose 30 precious seconds on you when you are out of one!
For sure, LinkedIn is no real place for real friends, unless they work in the same functional area as you do, and we have FB and Twits berths for them. People one works/has worked with are truly eligible and even if they are not our biggest fans, or we theirs, they fit into the deal. We have worked together and we can apparently support the credentials of the other. That works. Notwithstanding the fact that someone that has been adversarial in the workplace is probably a spy, and/or may even copy/clone your unique promotional style. But what can you do? Anyone watching reasonably closely gets to see who is the organ grinder, and who is the monkey.
The scavengers are the bottom feeders that are ruining the site. The second you make a new connection, following a meeting or conference, and all of their contacts see you are newly added, the shameless among them arrogantly send you an invite to connect, even when you have no idea who they are. LinkedIn used to encourage this behavior just like FB used to encourage sharing your private information and photos with anyone who wanted it, but they have changed their tone somewhat. On LinkedIn today, when you ignore/delete an invite, something which I find really interesting is that there is now a pop-up which classifies the reason for so doing as "I don't know this person". Wow! So therefore, we are not supposed to be inviting connections or accepting invites from people we don't know and never met?! Now there's a new concept!
It actually has become one small step up from spam. After making a new connection recently, with someone I do know, I received an invite from a senior colleague of that person with a truly ridiculous (if not downright nauseating) supposedly "personal" (yet generic) invite that read "I want to connect with you on LinkedIn, and look forward to meeting you again!"- this, from someone who I have never met? It's terrifically insulting! But it's assumed on LinkedIn that people are so desperate to be known, to be loved, to be "connected", that they will add numbers to another's bigger pile, in the vain hope of getting there themselves or getting that new job.
One needs to value one's own self. As opposed to virtual self-aggrandizement, by the meaningless vacuuming up of people who one doesn't know, doesn't care for, will never help and probably will never even meet - all to make one look hot, FB style, because you have bigger numbers than most, or than your peers. It's high school FB stuff for supposed grown-ups. One needs to refuse to be a scavenger and to deny these scavengers access to one's page, and moreover, or particularly, access to one's real colleagues. They only want you for what you can give them - never the other way around. It's insulting and demeaning, and extremely selfish.
"Ask not what your connections can do for you, but ask what you can do for your connections!"
Hold yourself in higher esteem. Don''t be yet another social media sheep. Following the (misguided) herd. Be yourself, be proud of who you are, and value your contact list highly. It is your professional currency. It should never be given away easily, not least to some socioprofessional climber, or even to a more senior person who almost wants to intimidate you into allowing them access to your full profile and list. The "smart" thinking is: "Well, they are quite powerful, so I've got no choice, right?"
Wrong. One always has a choice. You increase your value by so doing, in many ways. Sure, it may take longer for you to reach some magic number that fits you, but trust me, the really smart people know what "500+ connections" usually means. That is, that it's usually meaningless. It's completely image over content. But isn't that what LinkedIn has become, right now? More BS about how "great" you are, and how "popular" you also are, because of how many "friends" or followers you appear to have?! It aligned with the FB model, which was a serious error.
It's becoming the kids' FB page for grown-ups, without the bullying and scratching. Theoretically. Those of you with individuality, personality, uniqueness and talent should invest for the long term, and create a LinkedIn profile and list that has real value and meaning; one that will carry you a lot further in your professional life than the copycat wannabe-guru scavengers and their 500+ connections. I had to laugh when a female colleague who is among my LinkedIn connections, said recently -
"LinkedIn? You mean match.com for professionals?! It's more of a cruising and stalking site these days, than anything to do with getting a job!"
It's a social media virus that's spreading rapidly, even among your so-called friends and colleagues. The ones who cling to you when you are a success are rarely your real deal, especially as they are often gone when you go down. Do yourself proud, don't be afraid to stand alone, stay above the noise and the mess and the fury, and remain firm in the belief that you will ultimately look stronger than the masses for refusing to follow, as they all do. Having the courage to say "no" has somehow become devalued, having the class to remain somewhat "private" has been made to seem almost weird, and having the smarts to dictate how you use and value the exclusiveness of your online presence is deemed egotistic when it doesn't follow the so-called "rules".
It's laughable! Believe me, one sleeps much better at night for neither being a copycat nor a sheep. The days of the individual are not behind us, and irrespective of the invasiveness of social media (and that now includes LinkedIn in a big way), staying true to oneself is often the best medicine in this selfish, abusive, totally public online life we feel pressured into joining. We are free to decide, and one can have it all.
So by all means LinkIn, but turn off a lot of the public aspects of your online identity that you do not wish to share with the public, and be totally prepared to tune out all the noise and all the pressure/abuse that the sheep foist onto you. When it came to LSD, the mantra was tune in, turn on and drop out, but when it comes to LinkedIn, I say Link in, turn off and tune out! I don't know anyone who ever got a job via LinkedIn, and no one I have asked over the last few years has said that they did.
Guess what? I just got a brand new shiny job myself while refusing to play the traditional game, or in my opinion, by playing it better, and smarter, and that's proof positive that it still does work! So let's hear it for the individual, who will never become one of the sheep that the marketers dream we all can be. In fact, aren't sheep supposed to be more useful to send us off into dreamland? For sure, by the time you have counted even a fraction of them on LinkedIn, you are already off in la-la land!
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