Twenty million people received a flattering e-mail from LinkedIn the other day telling them they had one of the most viewed profiles in 2012 (either Top 5 percent or Top 10 percent). Hurrah, you’re special. Pat yourself on the back. Tweet it out again. Are we done yet?
Well played, LinkedIn.
LinkedIn has been getting a lot of attention for its marketing strategy. But no one’s focused on the bigger question: Does profile visibility translate into business results?
It’s not about visibility; it’s about achieving business results.
There are a lot of ways to gain visibility. Be active in LinkedIn Groups. Start a group and regularly e-mail participants. Answer lots of questions (until LinkedIn eliminated its Q&A feature). Post status updates regularly. “Like” or comment on status updates. Share status updates. Be a LION.
We know it’s important to use LinkedIn. And being findable is important. But is there strategic value in being highly visible (and is working toward that goal a good use of your time)? I’d love to see a study that looks at this.
Photo by Abode of Chaos (Flickr).
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Daria, I agree with you: it’s about real results from being on LinkedIn, not how many times our profile is viewed.
I’ve gotten several high-quality clients over the last two years from LinkedIn, clients who found me through searches and approached me with projects.
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Hi John,
Exactly! You’re being findable by the people you want to find you (i.e., quality clients).
As LinkedIn has gone through its own iterations, so has my relationship with the platform (and use of it). I think that doing away w/ the Twitter noise has been a huge plus; it lets you see more quality “shares” and also makes what you share more visible to you network. This may not be as sexy as gaming for “best answers,” but I’d rather be findable than visible.
I didnt get an email from LinkedIn
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Sigh. Neither did I. We can commiserate our failure together.
And then we can snap out of it (oh, I think we have) and realize this doesn’t mean we aren’t using the platform effectively… As I said to John, I’d rather be findable by the right people than visible to the masses.