April 14, 2009
What is the point of LinkedIn?
I’m on LinkedIn, I’m connected to 48 people. I go there, I declare to the world that I know these people. And then what?
If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. There’s:
- a project to find uses for LinkedIn
- a book on finding a point to LinkedIn
- and the company itself had to blog about ten ways to use LinkedIn.
If it takes a blog post, a book, and a community project, to find a point to your web application, I think there may not be one.
LinkedIn tries to explain itself
Take the blog post for example. It says that LinkedIn is, and I quote, “a great way for professionals to strengthen their online brand reputation and leverage their professional network”. Huh?
How about the front page. I bet they have a super-succinct value proposition. It’ll be obvious once I get to the front page:
- Stay informed about your contacts and industry
- Find the people & knowledge you need to achieve your goals
- Control your professional identity online
Let’s be honest, the reason you are ‘connected’ to these people on LinkedIn, as opposed to Facebook, Bebo, Orkut, or Friendster, is because you don’t want to “stay informed” about them. You don’t want to know what movie they watched last night.
What about the second bullet point, finding people? That’s about recruitment, and the trouble is, recruitment has gone niche.
- If I need a Python programmer, I post on python.org,
- for Django I post on Django Gigs,
- front enders are on Authentic Jobs,
- and so on.
LinkedIn seems to be built around a 1940’s model where you hire someone because they went to the same college as you: “Cambridge lad eh? Jolly good. Welcome to the company. Scotch?”
Maybe it’s all about that last bullet point, your “professional online identity”? LinkedIn is your home on the web, a virtual calling card, MySpace without the teenage exuberance? Well, if you’re in tech and your only online presence is LinkedIn, that’s less than impressive. A bit like a graphic designer printing his business cards on that machine at the mall.
LinkedIn prevents people from contacting you
If you are trying to get in touch with someone, whom we’ll call Chris, you probably start with your favorite search engine. You type in his name. Chris’ LinkedIn profile comes up. You click on it. You now have three options:
- You can pay LinkedIn $25, and they’ll let you send Chris an email (an ‘InMail’).
- You ask your friend Alice to ask her friend Bob to introduce you to Chris.
- You do what I do. You hit Back. Click on the next search result, which is Chris’ blog, select the Contact or About page, and email him directly. LinkedIn just wasted your time.
I may of mentioned this before, but this is not the 1940’s. We Internet types are comfortable talking to strangers. All I want is an email address, and that’s what LinkedIn doesn’t give me.
Let’s recap
You go to LinkedIn. You declare all your connections. You complete your profile, recommend people, answer questions, and so on. You give them a lot. And what does LinkedIn do for you? They prevent people contacting you. So, what, exactly, is the point of LinkedIn?
Feed
RSS / Atom feed
Roger McKafe said,
August 12, 2009 at 20:09
LinkedIn is like Pokemon cards for adults.
Rob Kirton said,
April 24, 2009 at 09:47
Graham
To date, I have found little benefit from being Linked-In. Having said that I have been on the end of a couple of recruiting searches and business offers as the result of subscribing. Just nothing suitable to date. I would suggest that, how people find others is by the means of a truly remarkable path, and has little to do with formal means of introduction.
For example I was force fed Latin at School many years ago, and can only remember classic “schoolboy Latin”. Those who have been there will understand :0)
I am also a believer in walking and using it to collect my thoughts; putting aside a little time each day to do so. For some strange reason I found myself typing “Solvitas perambulum” into Google this morning.
Guess what I found?
Steve Knight said,
April 15, 2009 at 08:30
Bravo! I have little use for LinkedIn either … other than it let’s me do exactly what you say. Stay loosely connected to the people I sort-of know. The people I really-know I don’t need LinkedIn for.
Whether it will ever be of benefit to me seems debatable because I’ve been on it for 4 years and have used it to look up an email address exactly once.
Return on effort? About zero.