Can someone please tell me what the utility of LinkedIn is please? I’ve had an account for quite some time and all it appears to be is a wanna-be high-brow version of Facebook, but without any of the bells or whistles. The interface isn’t that great. It isn’t all that informative. And you get more connection invitations from people you don’t know there than you even get on Facebook because they think that they can leverage these relationships to further their professional careers. Whoever paid good money to buy stock in this venture deserves to lose every penny of it as they obviously learned NOTHING from the dotcom bubble from ten or so years ago.
So, what spurred my latest rant against LinkedIn? I just received an invitation to connect with the “Jewish Outreach Fellow at Obama for America – DC.”
I’m not Jewish. It is pretty clear from my LinkedIn profile that I’m not a Democrat and do not support Obama. So why would this fellow even reach out to me? Is it because I have a LinkedIn account and Obama did a stupid town hall meeting at their HQ a few weeks ago where some aging hippie former reporter who got lucky working for Google asked the president to raise the capital gains tax rate?
I’m “this close” to deleting my LinkedIn account. So, if you see that I’m no longer on LinkedIn at some point in the future, you’ll know why.
Filed under: Technology
We used to refer to LinkedIn as the “Ex-Oracle” network, since everyone from Oracle was on there. I’ve used it to keep in touch with business associates from the past, and have actually landed a couple of gigs that way, so it’s not *totally* useless. Just as ugly as you’d expect any “professional”-oriented website to be.
Like any social networking site LinkedIn is what you make of it.
RE: “… because they think that they can leverage these relationships to further their professional careers.”
Of course they want to create relationships that can further their careers, that’s how the world turns! LinkedIn has help me in this regard on more than one occassion. Instead of ranting about some inviation that pushed you over the edge why not simply accept the LinkedIn invite and more on with your life? Don’t be surprised down the road you find yourself reaching out to your LinkedIn connections for….
It is weird when someone friends you even though it appears you have nothing in common. However that’s the NEW way! People are more open and willing to communicate even if they don’t believe the same things! The old way of thinking is, “they must want something from me…they’re trying to build their network”. LinkedIn (and all social media outlets) are set up so that we can friend 1,000 people who are just like us. The fact that people are willing to connect with people on the extreme end of their belief system is a beautiful thing! It’s a beautiful world!
Jump in, open up, get dirty, step outside your comfort zone…or maybe ask the other person, “why do you want to connect with me?” Don’t be surprised if they say something stupid like, “I’m just trying to be social.” LOL! It’s called “social” media for a reason.
BTW, I hated LinkedIn too; my account has been sitting there for 4 years until I finally committed to learning how to leverage it. And they’re changing the interface so that it’s now much more interactive! Here are some suggestions:
http://www.thebusinesscoachformoms.com/network-on-linkedin/