4 Problem Trends in LinkedIn
There are some troubling trends in LinkedIn these days and if something isn't done, the beauty of LinkedIn will soon spoil.
Here are the top 4 problems LinkedIn needs to catch and cure immediately - along with a few suggestions on how you, as a user, can and should address them.
1. Businesses setting up profiles as if they were individuals.
This is a problem. You should not set up a business as a person. I don't want businesses showing up in my "contacts" or network. Otherwise the entire networking aspect, which is supposed to be personal and individual in nature, is ruined. Don't do it.
If you are a business, use the company feature to add a company page.This is easy to do - just go to the "Company" link under the "interests" tab from the home page. Then, on the far right side, click on "add a company".
One reason I see companies do this is the many features in the individual profiles that allow for some creative and different formats for company information, etc. LinkedIn should be removing people who create individual profiles for companies and instead, re-vamp the company profile pages a bit to make them more customizable and interesting. As a user, you should flag profiles that do this. Seriously. Don't let them get away with it.
2. Using the updates to post personal or Facebook type stuff.
LinkedIn is a business/career/professional tool. It is not meant to announce your baby's birth, post pictures of your vacation, or share picture memes. It is for updates and information related to your career, your profession, about business.
The solution? Not sure exactly, other than to perhaps let people anonymously flag content as not-appropriate for the platform which would trigger an email to the user letting them know of disapproval of the use of LinkedIn. Maybe that is too passive aggressive. Sometimes I simply call people out on it.
Part of being a professional is knowing which technologies, which tools, to use when and how. Don't think that LinkedIn is an extension of Facebook. It isn't. I'm not just saying this for my own preference. This is also to help you not look silly to your peers and to help preserve the purpose of the platform.
3. Using LinkedIn messages to "email" blast people.
Please don't spam me. I am using less and less email these days because i wanted more control over what content I am bombarded with.
I know LinkedIn wants to make money, but I really dislike that someone I am not connected to can send me a message without relevancy just because they paid enough money. Honestly, the only way to solve this is for users to actually use the "report as spam" option. Please use it. I certainly do.
4. Selling or recruiting blindly (aka, the reading problem).
I take careful time to craft my profile in LinkedIn so that you, as a sales person, recruiter or a friend or a colleague, etc can know about my expertise, my experience, my abilities, reliability, etc. For instance, I have lots of information about my expertise in Salesforce. No where in my profile, however, does it say anything about development, coding, engineering, etc. yet, I still get many messages from sales people or recruiters who apparently can't spend enough time to read and understand my profile.
So I end up with an inbox of a bunch of irrelevant messages that feel more like email blasts than personal messages. This is simply you transferring the same terrible engagement practices you were doing in email over to LinkedIn. In LinkedIn you have plenty of information about me to not make those kinds of mistakes - that's why we have profiles - so you don't have to blindly guess and send me stuff that doesn't apply.
My suggestion? Actually take the time to read and understand my profile before sending me stuff.
So, that's my list. 4 things that need to stop in LinkedIn. I know they may sound a bit harsh, but if we don't be strict about it as a community, then we are to blame for the ruining of a great platform. LinkedIn already has a lot of the tools you need to help keep the platform clean, so please use them.
