If you have a LinkedIn profile, you’ve already noticed the increase in email notifications, reminders, and alerts coming from the popular social network for professionals.
For my part, a day doesn’t pass without receiving an email announcing the birthday, work anniversary or new job status of those within my professional connections. And when I’m not receiving those notifications, I’m receiving emails informing me who is viewing my profile or those within my professional circles that are “making news.” Of course, these are all in addition to the regular offers for free upgrade trials to various paid membership programs.
Apparently the “sleeping giant,” a label many in the marketing and investment worlds have attached to LinkedIn, is awake and banging on doors. But to what end? What’s the play?
Work Anniversaries are now “A Thing”
What do these changes say about LinkedIn? What exactly is LinkedIn today? Is it still just an interactive resume site geared toward connecting recruiters with job seekers and vice versa? Or is it evolving into a professional news source? Below is a sample of a regular email I receive from LinkedIn featuring a list of “recommended reads” based on my status updates, reading habits, and profile data.
Possibly, LinkedIn is trying to become a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) service by suggesting whom I should be reaching out to with follow up calls, emails, or other forms of communication. For example, in the email below LinkedIn greets me in the morning with a list of people it believes I should connect with and why.
All these new additions come after LinkedIn attempted to jump on the influence marketing gamification trend by introducing one-click, non-qualified “endorsements.” Is LinkedIn leading us into a new age of social networking or simply emulating tactics found on other sites? For example, it seems to be following the hyper-connected, oversharing model set by Facebook in asking us to post status updates, share/like/comment on others’ social updates, etc. We couldn’t blame them really, it’s hard to argue with Facebook’s success.
LinkedIn certainly seems to be taking its “social network” moniker a little too seriously, possibly setting itself up for a “jump the shark” event? Has LinkedIn become a digital version of the greeting card companies that made holidays like Valentine’s Day and Easter into cash cows? Case in point: LinkedIn has unilaterally declared work anniversaries “a thing,” something that now requires a congratulatory e-greeting card. How many readily remember their work anniversaries or those of their employees? I’d argue that if it weren’t for planned performance and pay reviews on one’s work anniversary, no one would ever pay attention to this new holiday.
And let’s not forget to wish everyone in our professional contact database a Happy Birthday! What did we do before LinkedIn?
What the New LinkedIn Updates Say about LinkedIn and Your Online Relationships
What I’ve found interesting in the new communication push from LinkedIn is not so much the comings and goings of my contacts but my reaction to the updates LinkedIn pushes at me – or the reactions others have had to my updates that LinkedIn has shared with them.
For example, I’ve recently corrected a spelling mistake in my job summary and almost immediately began receiving congratulation emails on my “new job.” What does that say about my contact database, especially given that I’ve rarely connected with anyone on LinkedIn that I’ve not met personally? It says that most of my professional contacts don’t really pay attention to what my job is or care to learn enough about me to understand that LinkedIn’s announcement that I’m now a “Partner at Sensei Marketing” (formerly “Parner at Sensei Marketing”) isn’t actually a new job.
And do I really want to wish business colleagues a happy anniversary on LinkedIn? What does it say about my professional relationships (or me) if I refuse to acknowledge it as “a thing?”
What it says to me is that business professionals, be they marketers, sales people, or even HR professionals, can’t rely on LinkedIn to truly manage their professional relationships. Until LinkedIn decides what it wants to be when it grows up, unsubscribe from the incessant email notifications and work the database manually based on your own needs. From a business perspective, I still believe LinkedIn as the greatest opportunity to positively affect professionals in the social networking space. Sadly, for now, it’s just adding more noise to an already clangorous Internet.
What Could the Future Hold for LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is definitely doing some things right. I believe that its news program is an intelligent move, especially its ability to customize and personalize news feeds based on my contacts and profile information. Its purchase of SlideShare, offering yet another source of education and inspiration for business professionals, is also a smart move in my view.
However, its lack of vision and leadership, evidenced by the me-too tactics demonstrated in its one-click endorsements, birthday/anniversary announcements, etc., reduces its credibility. LinkedIn has an opportunity to become a valuable business resource first and a social network second. Oddly, its current communication strategy seems to be pushing it towards the latter first.
Why isn’t LinkedIn a cloud-based contact management system that professionals can use to connect to internal business sales management software but carry with them when they leave for new jobs? If it wanted to be a true leader, why not offer a better way to manage professionals’ total social relationships – across all social networks – instead of siloing itself off?
Sensei Debates
- Has LinkedIn “jumped the shark” in its efforts to become a more Facebook-like social network and by seemingly following the pack instead of leading it?
- Do the status updates showcase how thin and irrelevant the “business connection” side of LinkedIn has become?
- What could the future be for LinkedIn?
Sam Fiorella
Feed Your Community, Not Your Ego