You probably have a lot going on with your online presence – let’s face it – you have a lot to do.
You are busy writing content for your blog. You might be tweeting on Twitter. Are you pinning images on Pinterest? There is all the communication to keep up with on Facebook. And what about LinkedIn? With all that you do, it is nice to get recognized for your effort.
Recognition is good. Especially when it comes from a highly known and well respected site like LinkedIn! How did you feel when you got an email from LinkedIn informing you that you are so influential that YOUR profile was one of the top viewed profiles in 2012? Awesome, I bet! (For the record, I did not get one (or should I say, I did not open an email that said I was one of the select individuals).
The only problem with this is that LinkedIn sent the announcement to about 10-20million of their users! That’s about the population of Dominican Republic, Switzerland and Jamaica…combined.
According to the LA Times, “The congratulatory email contains a link to an even more celebratory page, complete with a ribbon, a stamp and a “personal” letter from the social network’s senior vice president of products and user experience. It also encourages users to share their accomplishment with their friends with a text field that will export a message to their LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts.”
What a great marketing scheme! If you got caught up in the hype (or marketing ploy), don’t feel badly – so did many others! Just check out Tweets about LinkedIn + Top + Views + Profile
It’s clever. I’d think it’s reasonably harmless, too, wouldn’t you? It gets LinkedIn more attention, but also calls attention to those people who are (presumably) in the top 1%.
It is harmless in the fact that no one got physically hurt (that I know of) and that people did not have to spend money to get a Certificate or Plaque. But, something still rubs me the wrong way when they are letting people think they are more influential than they might be.
Ha well I case it’s great that I don’t spend a ton of time on my linkedin profile. I concentrate the majority of my marketing efforts on Twitter and Facebook and recently Google plus.
I don’t think that this makes LinkedIn a bad place… just makes me question why they would do such a thing.
For some reason, I never got into Google Plus. I probably should spend more time there as well.
Thanks, Beth!
Hi Paul,
I am indeed surprised to learn that Linkedin would use such an exaggerated marketing ploy.
The whole subject of social media influence strategy and scoring fascinates me. Is it a numbers game? What are the appropriate indicators of real influence? My new blog is about that: SocialinfluenceStrategy.com
Nice intellectual writing on your site, Buddy! I will be coming back for more!
I think when there is a lot of noise, it DOES become a numbers game! How can one stand out in a mass of similarities? Look at Twitter. Look at Facebook. Yes, there is some engagement going on, but I know that I cannot keep up with EVERY SINGLE item that hits my wall.
Hmmm, wonder why they think they need to do something like that, its not like they need more business lol
It have been to create a buzz on the ‘net! Their suggestion was to tweet, post on Facebook, and get the word out of the “Award Recipient’s” accomplishment!
This is the second time you’ve been 1-2 on the list of blogs I’m to check out for UBC. Interesting. I did sign up for your program on WordPress and am saving them til after this challenge is over. I wanted to get them the attention they deserve. Thank you. I really found this post interesting and shared on FB and Twitter.
Thanks, Dina! Glad you find this helpful. If you want, you can sign up for a free membership at
http://wpsitehelp.com/members/index.php?/register/28-Day – you can get the 28-days of content over there – no need to save all those emails!
Let me know if you have any questions!
Be Well.
It’s definitely a bit misleading!
I thought so!