OH MY GOD
You know how there are those little annoyances in your life that after a while get under your skin? One of mine is this social media company Linked In.
Listen, I like Social Media. A blogger generally gets how useful a tool it can be. Even though I don’t use Facebook I recognize how powerful and fantastic a way it is to communicate. It is taking over the world, believe me. The only reason I’m not on Facebook is because of the dedication to GMG. If I ever got started with FB the time suck would take away from this great thing we’ve created and we can’t have that now can we?
I’m a fan of Twitter and how effective a communication tool it is. 140 characters easy-peasy directed to exactly who you would like and delivered to their mobile device, desktop or email. Fantastic.
I just don’t feel the need to be on another Social network and especially one that seems so goddamn desperate that they can’t take no for an answer. For any of you who are choosing this Linked In social media thing I’m guessing you are doing so because it is what they are selling you as the business type of social media much like they try to sell business people on the inferior Blackberry technology over Android or even better iPhones.
Listen to me- when you sign up for this Linked In service and send out messages to everyone in your email contact list, they are just hammering your contacts with invitation reminder after invitation reminder even though you’ve already ignored the last one because you don’t feel like having to tend to yet another social media service. Trust me on this- no one gives a fuck about Linked In- all the cool kids are on Facebook.
I understand why they send these invitation reminders. It is because for you to accept the invitation to join the person on Linked In, you need to join Linked In. They would like to build up a network much like Facebook and possibly sell it for a bazillion dollars but friends believe me, it’s an also ran much like Blackberry will be and Nextel. Just because they TELL you it’s for business people doesn’t make it a better technology.
Please for the love of god don’t send me any more Linked In invitations because much like the past 7,000,000,000 Linked In invitation reminders they will be ignored.
Please don’t take this that I still don’t love you and want to hear from you. I’m just trying to enlighten you on what the hell is going on with this brutally obnoxious social media company.
I’d like to be Linked Out
Good Morning Gloucester 
I hear you Joey, I feel the same way about twitter. I had a twitter account for a bout five minutes. I don’t need to have my cell phone going off every five minutes or need to sit and stare at my computer reading about the banalities of other people’s existence.
LinkedIn is another story. I am quite active on LinkedIn and no, I’ve never asked it to link in every one in my contact list. That is foolish. Why would I want to be linked with my mother?
LinkedIn is my professional network. These are my past associates, my present associates, some key co-workers and people of that ilk.
LinkedIn did two things for me. It helped me find my job here in Gloucester. It also gave me a way to contact the people who I am professionally associated with should I get let go. Let me put it this way, in 2009 managers were tapping people on the shoulder and dragging them into conference rooms, reading them a prepared statement and escorting them off of the property. That happened to me in 2001 and they will not give you the time to go through your computer to get a list of people that you want or need to stay in touch with professionally.
Also on LinkedIn, I have been able to let past engineering friends that there is possible work at the company I work for. These have been guys that had their managers tap them on the shoulder.
LinkedIn is a professional network tool. So have you received a LinkedIn invite from me? Nah, you’re a blogging buddy and my lobster guy. I’ve got GMG for that. But yes, getting these friggen reminders (I get them from FB) is a pain in the ass and an indication of the self-importance that the wiz-kids behind these networks place on their tools.
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A lot of people would say LinkedIn is the only useful social networking tool because it is about jobs! There are certain industries where linkedIn doesn’t play, just like twitter isn’t a great avenue for every business. In my industry you need to be on linkedIN and won’t get a job without the tool. You spend a minute a day keeping your network of contacts up to date.
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Apparently my blue collar donkey ass just isn’t aware of the corporate social media scene. Thank god.
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It’s not just the corporate world either – you could recommend a plumber or lobster dealer that way too! 🙂
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LinkedIn is a different beast from Facebook. It’s more just for business networking so it’s not something I interact with regularly. I usually link with anyone I’ve done business with and so forth and it can provide a source for business leads, but it isn’t the dynamic social networking tool for friends sharing TMI that Facebook is.
I agree they are all annoying with the invites and there should be a way to receive no more invites for the stupid things…
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What they all said. You could take Facebook and all the others and dump them in the trash but the one that I couldn’t breathe without is LinkedIn. I do consulting on the side and any that turned into paying gigs were from LinkedIn.
Got an email yesterday from a friend/colleague that I had not seen in 18 years. She just got downsized. I’m writing a letter of recommendation for a job for her that would be a perfect fit. That’s LinkedIn.
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I’m a neanderthal.
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Neanderthal, right. Let me think. You whip up a LinkedIn page and along with there is an awards/honors section. Mine is empty. (My cooking merit badge would look dismal.) Yours would have bling conferred upon you by the US Congress and by both the senate and house of reps of Massachusetts.
You could also create company or web links to your lobster business and to GMG.
I just sent connection requests to Sharon, Kathleen, and Steve. (I don’t know Patrick’s last name.) Join us.
I’ve had an account for eons so it is a tad busy:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mbcfatdfci
To start, just put Joey, lobster broker and a web link to GMG and to Capt Joe’s. It ends up being a 5 minutes a week type thing but helpful to connect.
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I’m on Facebook (mostly to keep up with family and friends from long ago), LinkedIn (mostly to stay connected to colleagues from past jobs), and Twitter (I’m not sure why). Other than Facebook, I rarely post on any of them but I keep them because I do appreciate hearing from people I haven’t connected with in a long time. This morning I got a Linked IN invitation from one of the best, most creative guys I ever worked with — I hadn’t heard from him in years.
The cool thing is when you can get everything sync-ed so you can post to one and all the others pick it up. Saves a lot of time. When I post to my blog it automatically goes to all three of those sites, plus my Amazon Author’s page, Goodreads, Ravelry, Author’s Den and a lot of other places. That’s when it really becomes worthwhile!
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Joey:
Sorry! I know that one of those invites was from me. I had no idea how it was badgering people, and I didn’t really realize how deeply it was going to reach into my Gmail contacts (it didn’t send to my organized contacts, it sent it to that “invisible” list that Gmail keeps of every person who has ever sent you an email or received an email from you.)
I did just log in to LinkedIn and deleted all of the invite messages. If you happen to notice (please GOD don’t waste any more time on this!) would you let me know if that stops the reminders?
Again, apologies!
Kurt
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Kurt don’t take it personal at all. You know I think you’re the greatest. It (IMO) is just the way they grow. I just wish that they would send at most two of these notices. After getting them over and over it gets old.
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Yeah, I wasn’t aware of how aggressive they were in building the network of people. They should give you some opt-out button or something. I imagine that they’re doing a lot of damage to themselves by being this pushy…
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Apparently they are doing ok judging by the GMG folks who live in the corporate world and swear by it. I had no idea. But I’m usually teh last to know anyway ;0
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I’m too lazy to read this entire rant. Something about Joey wanting more Linked-In connections? No problem man, I’ll send three to make sure you get one.
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What a surprise. 3 more invite reminders this morning on three different of my email accounts.
They are relentless.
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