News

• LinkedIn have a private ‘invite only’ bug bounty program.
• LinkedIn’s ‘Member first’ focus apparently boosts satisfaction and engagement – really?
• LinkedIn appoint a new Chief Marketing Officer.
• Economic graph projects are appearing all over the world
• LinkedIn IT department in top 10 places to work
• There is a better way to search a connections connects, it’s not a complete workaround as you can’t search keywords but you can filter. All is explained in the video below.

Commentary

Where is the Line? I asked subscribers to my LinkedIn updates service the following question;

Where’s the line?

LinkedIn status updates and posts have definitely changed over the last couple of years. What was once a place where we only saw serious topics we now see puppies, quizzes, cars for sale and even naked women (I’m not kidding!)

I’m in favour of LinkedIn being inclusive, I really don’t buy into the idea of it only being for a certain ‘type’ of professional.Why is it OK for a recruiter to post a vacancy but not OK for a car salesman to post a picture of the latest used Range Rover they have on their forecourt?

Surely both have the right to ‘do business’ on LinkedIn?

Is it OK to post a funny picture? Maybe not, I guess everyone has their own idea on where the line is and that’s what I want to hear from you about.

Some examples below;

Here are a few responses I got back;

The updates have simply become “noise” as far as I’m concerned and I rarely look at any of them in any detail
I suspect  lot of noise is generated by members who feel they need to keep their profile on view and simply run out of “good” content so revert to the puzzles etc.

My view is not to mix business with pleasure.  Linked In is business.  Facebook is pleasure.  Clear boarder and brand identity for each one.  Keep puppies away from LI 🙂

A post selling me something, a post of two lines with nothing to say, a post asking “is there a plasterer in Huddersfield you know?”,  I delete them from all future posts.  I just don’t want to see it.
If there is anything which is sexist, all future posts go, and I delete them from my contacts.  I know people can be sexist and enjoy smutty humour but I look on  LinkedIn like they are saying it in a business meeting, which means the standards are higher!
LinkedIn is business but friendly, as soon as it turns into Facebook, I distance myself from whoever is taking it that way

Usage of Linkedin. Well, I think its there for people to network online and therefore if they post as they would share at a networking meeting then that’s a good guide as to what is acceptable in my opinion.

further than that…well people like motivational quotes, posting added value information and articles and I for one don’t mind people posting about houses to let and services as its a good place to pass this on to others and everyone has a variety of needs in business and in life.

Mainly I see the complaints coming form the boring old farts of business and those who are to stuck up to appreciate the platform is for more people than just them….diplomatically put for me I can assure you.

Interesting views, it seems puzzles are unacceptable to most people (even though they are clearly popular by the number of likes and comments) but outside of that opinion seems fairly split.

What do you think? Drop me a line at mark@Linkedinformed.com

Questions

A voicemail question from Darrel Griffin this week asking about the new group messaging rules.

LinkedIn have officially announced the news rules as follows;

• All members are restricted to 15 messages per month across all their groups
• The limit is not per group, its 15 group messages per month period.
• This limit includes messages to 1st tier connections if sent within the group.
• You can’t carry over unsent messages to the next month.
• You can’t send messages in a group until you have been a member for 4 days
• You also need to have been a LinkedIn member for 30 days to be able to send group messages.
• This restriction includes messages sent as private replies in a group discussion.
• Group owners, Managers and Moderators are subject to exactly the same restriction, even if the message is sent through the ‘Manage’ tab

This information was sent to subscribers on my LinkedIn updates list two weeks ago.

Thank you so much for listening, I really value your support and interest.

As always I would welcome your feedback and questions. If you want to be on the show you can leave a comment by voicemail (right hand side of this page) or email me at mark@linkedinformed.com.

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Until next time….