Tag Archives | LinkedIn

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.

Everyone wants to be complete. That’s why that little bar telling you you haven’t completed your LinkedIn profile to 100% is terrible. It compels and taunts you until you have completed your profile. Getting the bar to 85% is easy because you can do all that stuff on your own. It’s the other 15% that comes from other people’s recommendations that’s hard to do.

So, how do you ask for a recommendation? Pretty much in any way other than this:

The best LinkedIn recommendations will come from people who are so impressed by your work that they have to tell the world. When you have to ask for one, do it, but don’t offer your left thumb just for an online recommendation.

So, has anyone gotten an awkward LinkedIn recommendation request? Ever get one from a stranger? What depths will people sink to in their attempt to be known as “the best professional ever?”

You know why you don’t like using LinkedIn and all of its crazy features?

Because LinkedIn takes work.

It’s not as fast and fleeting as Twitter, and it’s not fun like Facebook. You can’t just hop on, leave a snarky comment on someone’s latest photos of their cats, and log back off. You have to talk to people and connect strategically to enhance your network. LinkedIn is a tool for business rather than pleasure, and that alone makes most roll their eyes roll far back into their head. I only use LinkedIn when someone wants to connect with me, and even then I’d rather be stabbed repeatedly with a dull fork.

So how do we make it more fun?

We don’t. But we can pretend LinkedIn is much more fun! Next time you get an invitation to connect, think of it as a “friend request.” When you update your status, imagine your sharing the most amazing thing ever with your closest friends. Talking with a group? Think of it as a an exclusive clique that you’re a part of.

LinkedIn won’t become more fun immediately, but we can imagine it is much more than it is.

What do you do to make LinkedIn bearable? Do you imagine it’s more fun, do you just put up with it, or do you avoid it all together? I want to know what you do to make LinkedIn a party.

100 million members later, and people still don’t know how to use LinkedIn beyond posting their resume.

You think people would be interested in interacting with professionals in their field, raise awareness of their skills, and build relationships with some of the best business people in the world, but no. We just go over there, post our resume, and hope some recruiter stalks our profile wants our skill sets so badly they bend over backwards to hire us.

LinkedIn doesn’t work that way.

Posting your resume with all its typos and a grainy photo your cropped from your Facebook profile doesn’t make you professional. It makes you cheap. Adding widgets with your latest blog posts and your SlideShare presentations can be nice, but if you keep adding stuff it looks like you put your resume on your MySpace page. Some profiles are so bloated, I find myself waiting for the animated .gif backgrounds and for “Little Red Corvette” to play when I load up your profile.

I know we all want to look cool with our widgets and our apps, but seriously, what’s the need broadcast your travels on your LinkedIn profile? Do I really need to know what business book your are reading? You really want me to believe you only read business books? Go ahead and lie publicly to me and your next boss. I’d rather know you read J.K. Rowling along with Seth Godin. That’s at least muggle-izes humanizes you.

LinkedIn is as robust and bloated as Facebook. It has features beyond connecting with your business contacts and making your dinky little profile. You can ask questions and get answers from people without the exercise in ego masturbation that goes on on Quora. You can stalk a person or company. You can make a group of professionals to interact with so you don’t have to deal with the unwashed masses. Even before you strip the business aspects away, LinkedIn is the most successful Facebook competitor in terms of having lots of ways to interact all based around one profile.

Stop making LinkedIn your online resume holder. If you care about being social at all, you can find something to do on LinkedIn.

Are you doing anything on LinkedIn besides posting your resume? I want to know what people are actually doing on there.