But, I'm starting to feel that the value is being watered down in two particular areas.
Hunters
There are just so many people who appear to be "hunting". They're looking to play the numbers game, use the scatter-gun approach to marketing themselves or their business. They try to connect to everyone, join all the groups and then proceed to bombard them with their "pitch". They add no value, just fill our in-boxes with spam and the groups with their events and products.If you are one of these people, please stop. Now.
Groups
Groups are fantastic, a great place for like-minded individuals to discuss all sorts of things, a real benefit for those willing to interact. But there are so many that cover similar topics, and share many of the same members - most of whom fail to engage or add value in any way.It seems that some are started as part of some kind of ego trip, or because the owners think they can do better (and of course some do!). The problem then, is that followers are unsure where to go, lose interest and the group stagnates.
I'm glad to say that I am in some quite active groups that genuinely generate value for members, and that is often down to the hard work put in by the group owners as well as the engagement of members.
So, if you are a member of a Linked-In group, why not sign in and engage? It's good for your credibility and good for the wider community. Go on, give it a go!
One way it could be improved would be for inactive groups to be deleted after a time - it's difficult to negotiate them all and the existence of one (redundant) group may detract from a better group.
ReplyDeleteThe same should also happen to actual profiles - so many people sign up and never come back. LinkedIn likes to bang on about how many users they have, but I'd like to know what proportion is active!
Hi Dan, thanks for your reply.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, after a while of not visiting a group, LinkedIn send out reminders and change your update settings. perhaps it is time they did something with inactive users and groups. As you say, it really would be interesting to know how many users are inactive.
It is so easy to join these groups with lots of good intention and then ignore them. Of course we dare not leave just in case we miss something! It's a bit like hoarding in the house. OCcasionally you have to de-clutter.
After I wrote this blog I actually visited a few groups that I have been ignoring and left them.