Sometimes I love LinkedIn. It’s everything I want in a social network. I’m connected to smart people. I only show of my best parts (and I don’t mean my behind). I actually know 98% of the people I’m connected with. It’s almost perfect.
Then I remember I am connected to other people and other people are less perfect than I am.
People on the internet, stop linking things to your LinkedIn account that you do stupid things with.
An example:
It’s Sunday morning. I check LinkedIn because LinkedIn is slow on Sundays, and I don’t have the time to invest into it like I do with my blog, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Dailybooth, and the other social networks I use on a daily basis. So, I see the stuff my friends are sharing, and the first headline is:
Nothing like a strong mimosa to start Sunday http://lookatacrappypicofmymimosa.com
This user had his Twitter account synced to his LinkedIn updates. So what may have been an entirely personal tweet was now being shared with his rather large business network. Nothing makes me trust a business partner more than knowing he or she needs a strong drink to start off their Sunday morning.
The sad thing is how much of this mindless linking I still see. You think users would learn that separate networks are for separate things. Like Facebook is for all my whiny crap, Twitter is for my short but concise sarcasm, and YouTube is for videos of my cat. It’s not that hard people.
LinkedIn is for business, not pictures of your cat and your favorite liquor (unless you sell photos of liquor and cats, but that’s another story). If you think you might share something that is not business related on another network, then do not connect that account with LinkedIn.
Protect yourself. Don’t get fired or lose a potential job just because you had to retweet your favorite porn star one morning and you let all of LinkedIn see that too. Only connect profiles and networks to your LinkedIn profile that make sense with your business presence. It’s just that simple.
And for all that’s holy cut down on the mimosas. Or at least the tweets about them. You’re better than that.
Not only that, I think LinkedIn should have less messages. “I changed jobs” .. “got a promotion” “got a new client” etc.. Not every random article related to your line of work.
Wait, you don’t want to know every detail of my work life?
Oh, definitely. That’s why I read your tweets.
Good point. I still struggle with LinkedIn. Though I love the idea of it, it’s sometimes difficult to remember to update my account and to figure out what in the world to post about. Feel free to post something pointing out stupid LinkedIn posts etc. so I can get some tips.
People like to make LinkedIn seem like this big mystery, but it’s really just a big social network for business rather than cat photos.
Now I need to decide if I should post this article to my linked in account.
I did. There’s nothing like being passive aggressive.
Jay,
I feel like it shouldn’t matter when it comes to what you use your profiles for. None of these networks are really “siloed” anyways. So it’s more important that you don’t share any of the content you wouldn’t want the rest of the world to see.
Just my thoughts.
Cheers,
Chase
They’re siloed if you set them up that way. If I go by “Boy Toy” on Twitter and Jay Dolan everywhere else, most people won’t know I’m “Boy Toy.”
I guess creating links between systems supposed to represent you as a professional person and other which show the more ‘personal’ part of your personality is something to avoid! I hate to plug my stuff, but you might find a sort of academic take on the subject interesting: http://www.belouin.com/blog/2011/05/linkedin-facebook-and-social-identity-theory/
Dogs are okay though, right?
Only working breed dogs.
Okay, teaching an old dog new tricks. Will keep you informed…
Personally, can’t see the co-relation between posting on Tweeter and having posts automatically appear on LinkedIn, even though I know and suffer many who do so. Two different animals.
I still have a lot to learn to figure out Linked In but I do always think of it as a “more serious” network than Twitter and Facebook. Not that they can really compare. Anyway, just agreeing with your anti-sociality
It’s only serious because it’s actually worth $3 billion.
I heard someone once describe Facebook as the water cooler, LinkedIn as the office, and Twitter as the bar. Behave accordingly (depending on your office atmosphere …)
Thank goodness LinkedIn is like working at the circus.
I know people who send everything to everything. I just can’t accept that they won’t at least draw the line at LinkedIn.
Would you like to see a picture of my two storage units? That’s where I’m going this afternoon. Talk about linking to crap…
The line between the internet and common sense is blurry at best.
I just love your site, Jay. Where else can I get snark, hard drinking, cheap lemur-hoarding (Wait! did I give away your secret? Sorry.) and honest-to-God solid social networking pointers. It’s worth coming back to again and again. The only thing that would make The Anti-Socil Media better is more emoticons.
Mwah.
I miss seeing you around.
I miss seeing you too. You need to teach me how to box so I can beat up the people who wrong me. Or defend myself. Or just so I can be a badass.
Call me anytime. I will kick their ass on your behalf then we can enjoy a beer in peace, two badasses, just chillin.