Friday 8 February 2013

I Love LinkedIn But.....

LinkedIn - It's a great place for business people to be, to communicate with the world, share best practice, give and receive advice, catch up with your network, extend your network. I love it!

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!