Prediction: More and more people will sign up for it, but LinkedIn will become less useful.
I’ve been a fan of LinkedIn. What you get from it without paying a dime is tremendous. When used properly, in a one-to-one manner, you can find prospects, future employees, maybe future employment. The philosophy is “Relationships Matter.”
I have personally hired one tremendous manager through the service. The genius built into highlighting our depths of connections is tremendous.
But LinkedIn is getting increasingly watered down by a mass of connect-at-all-costs, slick salespeople who choose to ignore why it was created, in order to use it like they’ve possibly treated other relationships in their lives. And the Groups feature is facilitating all of this.
Let’s say you join a real-world group and you’ve chosen to attend one of the monthly meetings. You show up and see 150 people in attendance. How would you react if someone simply stood up and shouted at you:
“I want to network with you all! Come, grab a business card and give me yours! I don’t care who you are or what you do or how well you do it! Let’s tie our reputations together forever!”
You’d be just a little turned off, wouldn’t you?
That’s what’s happening with LinkedIn Groups. Here’s how it works: You join a group, particularly one that attracts salespeople, then you choose to receive a periodic update by email of questions members in the group have asked. The image at the top of this post is what you get amongst those “questions.”
I hate wasting my time on variations of spam, so my response this past week has been to leave those groups. Relationships don’t matter to people like this. A high number of loose, superficial connections do. Seth Godin calls the Internet a “giant cocktail party, with all these people swarming around connecting as much as they can because they like to keep score. But one day, when you need to ask them to authorize a $100,000 contract, it doesn’t matter.” He goes on to say, “Networking is always important when it’s real. [But] the Internet has allowed an enormous amount of fake networking to take place.”
That’s where I see LinkedIn headed in 2009. Useful? Yes. But you’re going to have to wade through the typical, crowded, loudmouth muck to get there.
Now, how do you see LinkedIn shaping up for 2009?
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Almost every “free” internet service gets over-run by people like that. Lots of paid ones do as well.
LinkedIn has been of zero value to the vast majority of it’s users and that trend will escalate, due to their come-one come-all business model and the fact that it’s basically a wild west shootout in there.
A few people, like you, have found gems, but like the gold rush of 1849, only a few strike gold and the rest lose their shirts or their souls.
Those that sell tools to the gold diggers, LinkedIn themselves, will do the best.
The model seems to be set up to operate in just that manner, so it looks like they’ve accomplished their goal.
You can’t be all things to all people. You’ll end up being nothing to nobody.
Just my opinion. It won’t get you a latte at Starbucks, but at least no animals were harmed during the making of that comment.
I have been going back and forth on Linked In for some months now.
I am using the applications they offer (rss feed blog, and slideshare) also I have found it useful for finding contacts that I enjoy speaking with.
I agree I see some connections that have over 300 connections, I am confused by that.
When I speak to my friends in the field they are on linked in although no one is too sure how to use it, or how it works.
For 2009 I hope Linked In (like Seth Godin says) allows me to tighten my network and connections. We will see
LinkedIn has some flaws that I think they are trying to correct. Over the past year they have put a lot of work into the service but I do think it’s a bit too late for all of these fixes. I really liked LinkedIn when I first got an account but as you mentioned, the pool has become so over watered that I get more crap from people trying to connect from me than real professional use from it. I will keep my account but as far as using it for professional networking, I’ll pass.
Brandon, you’ve made some interesting points. I think we all (I am for certain), becoming more mature in the use of these social networking/busness networking tools.
Many people will abuse these–certainly you point out some great examples. Seth’s point, along with many others is that effective networking is based on genuine, real relationships. This has always been true, whether in the real or vitual world.
It’s less an issue with the tool, but more how we leverage them. We can also, easily, filter the spam and noise in those networks.
I get invitations from too many people every day. Most of them, I ignore or reject. I only accept invitations from people that I know and want to build a greater relationship with. I accept invitations from people I don’t know, only after they have agreed to and we have had a telephone call to get to know each other—and to explore if a relationship makes sense. As a side note, every time I have done this, I get two comments: 1) This is the first time anyone has ever asked me this, and 2) this is a great idea, do you mind if I copy it.
There have been times when I have sent a a request to have a conversation to someone who has sent an invitation and gotten no response. I always wonder, if the purpose of the invitation is to network, why don’t they take advantage of it when it is offered? In truth, their lack of response show they have no intention of true, genuine networking.
In the early stages of LinkedIn, I accepted too many invitations. Now, I am culling those out and eliminating them from my network. I am new enough to Facebook to have not made the mistake I made with LinkedIn. (By the way, there was an interesting opinion piece in the WSJ the other day about being “uninvited.”
As we mature in our online networking behavior, it is important to recognize that quantity doesn’t matter, it’s building a strong, high quality network.
Having said, all this: Brandon, I’m lookin to expand my network, will you please send me an invitation………… Just kidding, couldn’t resist!
I think your comments on LinkedIn and the quality of relationships are all relevant and quite accurate. However, I don’t see them specifically linked to 2009. What you’re mentioning has been a common point of discussion since the early days of LinkedIn and other services. The questions essentially is about volume vs. quality. One reason that we may be confronted with the sort of situation that you describe above more frequently in 2009 is the way new users enter LinkedIn.
In 2009 a significant part of new LinkedIn users will be driven to the site by having lost their jobs in the ongoing worldwide crisis. Having lost their jobs and needing a new one will drive them to LinkedIn. As they won’t have a network, however, they will be looking for ways to quickly build a large network, often forgetting that the quality is equally as important as the size. So, in 2009 I think you’re right that we’ll see even more of the same old problem.
It’s not a new trend – it’s just more of the same.
That also means that YOU decide what the value of LinkedIn should be to you and those around you.
Here are your choices:
- first decide what value inkedIn should bring to you – volume or quality.
- then if you decide to go for (what you think is) a healthy balance between quality and volume, then LinkedIn will have value in the way that matches yout perception of value – also in 2009.
Have a great 2009 – don’t invite me to connect until we have at least spoken.
Best regards,
Jakob
Brandon, good post – I’m increasingly noticing the same trend as you are. Referring to this same problem is item 3 in one of our previous posts on LinkedIn. When it comes to relationship building and networking, the critical element is quality and not quantity. It’s unfortunate LinkedIn (or rather many people using LinkedIn) miss the boat on that one.
Much like Powerpoint, it’s not the tool that corrupts, it’s the use of the tool. So people are always to blame.
Jakob, The reason I see this tied to 2009 is, given the current economy, I believe sales professionals will be doing more and more to “connect” with prospects to get deals done faster, to build their own credibility, etc. But it’s a farce. The connections aren’t real. The connection you have to John Doe isn’t real, so I don’t come to you asking to connect the two of us, and/or John Doe doesn’t put stock into my cold-call-disguised-as-a-warm-call.
Dave, That’s where I’m at, too. I don’t accept invitations any longer from people I don’t know beforehand.
And Mike, nicely put. I agree completely.
Tighten your linkedin network.
Operate by your own rules.
Be confident in what you build.
1) As people get fired, the data in LinkedIn might not be updated as those people keep it secret if they are no longer working for a company.
Thus when you contact them for a new job opportunity, they have the same problem as you.
2) Building and improving relationships on-line.
Just this morning I connected with an old peer of mine through LinkedIn. He asked me to look at his contacts and determine who I thought would be a good prospect for my company to do business with. His openess shocked me, but I took him up on this and carefully browsed his contacts for a list of about 6-7 individuals that I thought might benefit by a relationship with my company. Within a few hours he had sent an e-mail to these individuals introducing my company.
If he asks, I will return the favor. In the 2 years I’ve been on the site, this is the first time that someone really showed me the value of LinkedIn as a business tool. I think that more of this should happen, but I don’t think it is. I think some folks believe that they’re in a contest to have the most contacts. LinkedIn is no FaceBook.
I’m going to go against the stream here.
I am one of those “Notorious Open Networkers”. I’ve been so since 2004. However, I contact ALL of my new connections.
Why?
First, I was a recruiter. The more people in my network, the better. Even a recruiter from India gave me a larger 2nd and 3rd level network, as I did them. That was the benefit we expected, we got it. Even these I will send a short email thanking them and soliciting more connections from other employees.
Now, I’m promoting my company, Smart Barter USA. Since it is potentially useful across a broad spectrum of the business community, I benefit a couple of ways.
First, I find the occasional person who will actually join my exchange.
Second, I find people to build alliances with.
I did an analysis of people in my network who lived near me (Kalamazoo, MI). Out of the first 300 in my direct network (mostly 2nd level), over 50% were connected to me only through another Open Networker.
It does not work for everyone. For too many people, it’s a time consuming hobby, frankly.
Many good points in the post and the comments. I have been on LinkedIn since 10/05/2004. There has been lots of growth since the “old days” some good and some not.
I have found that the value is best found in digging deeper into the tool via Groups, SubGroups and even the Applications, none of which were there in the early days. I have found groups to be more focused, more comfortable is size, and more interactive. Much depends on the Group Owner and how aggressively they manage the spam and self promotion.
Applications like Huddle and Box add tangible value for me as well.
I do get a lot of useless E-Mails from LinkedIn groups that I’ve joined. Just self promotion stuff of no value.
I used linkedin to network regionally and found a local contract position which is looking like it is going to lead to a full time senior position at a growing company. I connected with someone I wouldn’t have without it. So for now I am pro linkedin despite the annoyance of spam type connection requests.
It’s 2011 now and I just found this – it echoed a lot of the concerns I had in late 2008 when I posted a Question on LI on the topic. I’ve been more carefully managing my connections and group activity since. I blogged about it today.
Dee, great to hear that you’re having some success with LinkedIn in terms of finding a new position. Thanks for letting us know!