The worst LinkedIn behaviours and how to avoid them
In this guest post that was originally published on LinkedIn, D. Sriram lists the behaviour on the business social network that really winds him up.
Normally I ignore all the stuff that shouldn’t be on a LinkedIn post and try to avoid spending time reading rubbish but from time to time it gets a little too much, so I’m going to indulge my ‘peeve list’ a bit. And do a numbered list for a change… starting from five all the way to my number one peeve.
5. Pointless puzzles, mazes and maths questions
Seriously, that’s the only thing you could find to post? Why is it relevant to people on LI? What’s unique about it? If you wanted to encourage people to relax for a few moments during their workday why not post a link to sites which have all this trivia instead of providing one specific example?
4. Inane quotes (usually misattributed), fake stories and trite homilies
The latest in this series is some guff about wolf packs being led by the weakest so that they don’t fall behind and the youngest and strongest members hanging back to protect the rest. Wolf packs are notorious for young punks constantly challenging the authority of the leader – that’s where the whole concept of an ‘alpha male’ came from. Research stuff before you post it, there’s lots of credible places to check this crap before you start posting it.
It really bugs me when someone posts something like this and says ‘True…’ – no it’s not, and your saying so doesn’t automatically endorse it to be.
And it’s lovely to see all kinds of nice sentiments being attributed to Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and the like – the truth is, they were extremely effective business leaders who didn’t always have the time to be nice and self-effacing, so a lot of this is either the reframing of history or completely untrue.
3. Job ads, asking people to respond in the comments, and actually responding in the comments
That’s actually three things but I’ll club them. To those who post job ads here, if your company is too cheap to spend $100 on a proper job listing you probably shouldn’t be working there. To those who ask for people who’re interested to respond in the comments – whom do you think you’ll get there? And to those who respond in the comments, what signal do you think you’re sending to the potential employer (not to mention your existing employer who can read what you commented on).
Post proper job ads, give people a place to respond confidentially, and respect LinkedIn’s business model and pay them the 100 bucks or so that they charge for a job posting. (No, I don’t work at LinkedIn or own shares in it – it’s the principle of the thing).
2. Writing long posts about why you quit your last job or why you’re in the new one.
I’ve seen this from pretty senior people who get plenty of PR coverage as it is. So we all know you moved jobs. If you link to that here, that’s fine – everyone in your network can read it and congratulate you.
What we don’t need is the long post on what went wrong at the old company or what’s so great about the new one – let the honeymoon wear off and if you really like it there, you can write about the work you do. We don’t need the entire exit interview reproduced here.
1. The ‘humble brag’
I absolutely detest this.
So you won an award or spoke at a seminar.
Great! More power to you.
If you got covered in some external media, provide a link by all means. Though it would be more cool to have your friends do this because they discover the link and the news.
But for the love of God or whatever else you worship, don’t write ‘humbled and proud blah blah blah…’. Here’s why:
1. You can either be humble or you can be proud
2. If you’re posting something that’s actually about how great you are then you really can’t be humble about it
3. Generally being humbled is not a good thing. It means you got your butt kicked and the arrogance knocked out of you.
OK, end of rant. I don’t think it’s going to make one iota of difference to what I see on LinkedIn but at least I can tell myself I tried. And be proud of myself for sharing my humble opinion.
D. Sriram is chief operating officer of Vpon.
I usually ask myself “what would chris j reed do?”
Then I do the opposite.
ReplyI think that’s called cutting off your nose to spike your face…..I do have the most viewed LinkedIn profile in Singapore for a reason…. if I could see who you were I could give you some free constructive feedback on yours to help you…..
ReplySriram – good read but your article doesn’t offer any solution how to avoid annoying comments and antics on LinkedIn.
In fact, I doubt you can avoid them – you can either ignore or click on to unfollow the person or click not to see the comment.
Just my two humble cents.
ReplyAll excellent points D. Sriram – good practice all round, thanks for sharing
Reply“Stay hungry, stay foolish” – Abraham Lincoln
ReplyAn excellent summary on why Linkedin is truly the FB of the self promoting, insecure, unemployed and unemployable.
ReplySounds like someone who is all 4 of those ain’t that the truth……
ReplySurely the fact that is has so many different posts makes it more interesting. It would certainly be dull and boring if we kept to the same old messages going up daily.
ReplyI understand that posts that interest me may not necessarily interest others and vice-versa. Just bypass those things that annoy you or are not of interest. On the positive side, it also helps you to decide on deleting those contacts who have become overbearing and tiresome.
CJR
ReplyI think it’s called ‘spite your face’, although ‘spiking your face’ would feel the same.
Numbers 1-10 = Chris Reed also known as “runs a LinkedIn Marketing company that isn’t endorsed by LinkedIn”
Also the worst responding to comments behaviours 1-10 = Chris Reed
ReplyAre we going for a ‘most posts to to a mumbrella thread” yet again , so chris j reed can share this on his Linked in profile?
ReplyLike many people in the world who run social media agencies that are also not endorsed by any social media brand that they work on….niaive comment on business, is every facebook marketing agency endorsed by facebook? no…..
Replywe have to beat 40 Tammy…..
ReplyWe can easily cross 40 if chris J reed keeps on replying to every post, no matter how inane….good example would be if he came on after this one and said something like:
“Tammy, I agree.”
ReplyHere’s an excellent non-humble brag from CJR on LinkedIn “The British High Commission have asked influential social commentators like myself …”
Replyhttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/shakespeare-my-favourite-moment-chris-j-reed-black
Tammy I complete agree….
ReplyThanks Humble but that is not a humble post as I don’t say humble anywhere in the post…. D.Sriram’s point that annoyed him were people saying “humbly” when they meant the opposite…….but thanks for sharing…..
ReplyTrue – Though they aren’t arrogant enough to include the Facebook logo within their branding. Pretty sure this is copyright infringement.
ReplyAnyone who needs help to “present” themselves on Linked In is a retard to begin with.
Some people do need special help though.
Reminds me of how they had letter writers in Shakespearean times…to capture the thoughts of the illiterate.
Reply$100 for a linkedin advert? That’s, on average, 5-10 times more expensive then you can buy them from a specific, hugely popular site like Jobserve. I doubt the response on their ‘jobs’ section would be better then the jobs posted as status updates, directed towards a carefully cultivated 1st connection network.
ReplyHow is it arrogant to say what we do? Maybe they just didn’t think about it? Actually if you do a quick search there are plenty of digital and social marketing agencies out there using social media logos in their marketing. You sound like your jealous that we came up with this way of doing it…..
ReplyAgree, it’s not humble, just a brag, or a rather painful self-promote. Do BHC see you as an ‘influential social commentator” or just a social commentator who is also an active member of Britcham. And having the most viewed LinkedIn profile in Singapore is because you accept connection requests from every Tom, Dick and Harry from NIgeria who wants to put $1M into your account. That’s the LinkedIn equivalent of requesting spam and cold calls from real estate agents. Anyone can do it, but no-one wants the hassle
ReplyHave your say