I am a long-time LinkedIn user. According to LinkedIn, I was one of the earliest adopters. It is a powerful tool that I use extensively in my executive search business. I use it exclusively to promote my brand and to find candidates for my searches. It is an excellent product that is easy to use and has enhanced my productivity. It has become more valuable since the Microsoft acquisition, until recently at least. However, it’s not perfect.
Over the years, several distasteful trends have appeared on my LinkedIn feed. My favorite is the one I call the “Russian Bride Scam.” That was crude, comical, and so transparent. I almost miss that trend. Even now, I am approached by women allegedly looking for a romantic partner. At my age, those solicitations are more annoying than flattering. They are easy to spot as their profiles are sketchy and their photos are inappropriate. There is the “agent for an international corporation” scam. I am not clear how this scam works, but I am confident that the objective is to separate me from my money. I have had recommendations from contacts to become a mystery shopper for a legitimate company. Message to those scammers, I had extensive experience with mystery shopping programs during my corporate career. I’ve got your number! And, of course, the “Nigerian Scam” is still out there in one form or another. It is so sad that people still become entangled in these scams at a rate sufficient to keep the grifters in business. More recently, insanely aggressive appointment-setting pitches have bombarded my inbox. These pitches may not be a scam, but they are undesirable. During the 2020 Election Cycle, I found more political content on my feed. Political posts are particularly annoying to me.
Many solicitations are the result of someone hacking into the account of a legitimate user. Fortunately, most are obvious and ignored. However, dealing with unwanted solicitations consumes time, which one cannot recover. I do not appreciate distractions on my feed that cost additional time and energy better used for my goals.
Receiving messages better suited to Facebook, Instagram, or some other social media platform is frustrating. Click To Tweet Now, don’t misunderstand. I appreciate compelling human interest stories. People that have beaten cancer give me great hope. I am a sucker for stories about your pet. I get a warm, all-over feeling inside when I see a video of veterans returning from overseas combat assignments. I am a military brat, after all. And, I enjoy seeing your accomplishments, beating the odds, ascending to new heights in your career. Notwithstanding suspicions to the contrary, I am a human being. Nevertheless, I believe one should post human interest stories on some other social media platform.
I am not the only user who has become increasingly annoyed by people using LinkedIn as if it were Facebook. I am not alone in my belief, as I have talked to many people, including LinkedIn gurus, who share my angst. Some say that the Covid-19 lock-down is partially to blame. I believe that to be true. In an article published in Inc. Magazine, Chris Dessi noted that LinkedIn is evolving, so I must adapt. That may be correct—I plan to adjust to this evolution by navigating around the not-so-professional aspects of LinkedIn. I have begun blocking people whose content is not relevant to me, and I have changed my Account Preferences to eliminate political content. Hopefully, LinkedIn will create new filters to make eliminating unwanted content easier.
I believe that LinkedIn is an important application that helps me achieve my career goals. I use LinkedIn to build my brand recognition. That is why I am a subscriber. I find it well suited to making new connections. It has improved my effectiveness in finding candidates for my search assignments. I don’t believe you should use LinkedIn to convey human interest stories. If you continue to use LinkedIn like Facebook, don’t be surprised if people begin blocking your posts. Your brand will suffer.
I recommend that LinkedIn creates more rules and filters so we can achieve peak productivity. That is the evolution I can embrace.
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Jim Weber – Managing Partner, ITB Partners
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