LinkedIn or LockedOut, by Francesca Maxime June 9, 2009
So instead of writing this blog post, I should really be getting back to work. But I can't get over the nagging feeling I get every single time I get on LinkedIn. Why?
I love Facebook. I'm having fun flirting with Twitter. I enjoy regular old Email. I've even started this Blog. An RSS feed is no longer foreign to me. And Yes, I get WIRED magazine.
So when LinkedIn first came around, I joined up-perhaps three or four years ago? For awhile I only had a handful of "contacts" (not friends mind you - contacts) because, frankly, I was too busy Anchoring the nightly news for ABC in Pensacola to "network" online. But as I grew into my job, and people found me online, etc., I accepted contacts here and there, and recently, after having been laid off, was told I should "beef up" my LinkedIn profile, because it was the first thing people saw when they Googled me. He was right.
So, I finished up the sections that were blank. And then I did another thing my friend recommended: I asked people to "recommend" me. Basically, it's like asking for references from the LinkedIn contacts you have in your circle. (Mine are up to 101 right now. On FB I'm at about 2100, and it's only been a year... And Tweeting for three months? I'm batting around a 300). I've even Bing'ed in the last couple of days. Have you? Yea, exactly...
In any case, so I send out an all-call for recommendations and get a dozen back. Great! No worries! Fabu! Thank you! And then, I try to reach out to a few people I know, but don't really know (you know, FB'ers, what I mean), and send them a message inquiring about something.
Well you might as well slap me in the face with a frying pan, or unleash the guillotine. Because LinkedIn doesn't work that way. And it obviously doesn't want to. And that's obviously perfectly fine with many of its users. But not really with me. It's kind of like Match.com for online dating. You send a "wink" and then you either get nothing back (which is fine), or, you get back one of those "I'm not really into you" messages, which is worse. LinkedIn's kind of says something like: "Several people whom you've contacted say they don't know you. You should only invite people you know to connect with you on LinkedIn."
Ok...... soo...... I guess I'm missing the point. If I went to a cocktail party and knew everyone there, why would I go to that party? Sure, I can enjoy their company one on one, can chat about things we already share in common or know. But isn't what makes the party fun, the fact that you get to meet new people and sometimes you don't know who they are or what they'll do? Getting "introduced" through a LinkedIn connection doesn't work with the facility one has in real, live situations where you're seated at a table with your friend, and the friend introduces you to person across the table and says "Ginger, this is Francesca. Francesca, this is Ginger. We used to work together at blah blah blah..." and so on and so forth, add a few cocktails and you're off and running.
See, I like to keep things loose. To me, LinkedIn is more like wearing a corset and girdle everyday to work. (Yea, women did that in the 40's, even when their "work" was most often vacuuming and cooking at home). It's not comfortable. It's unnecessary. And it's really not the way things are moving: towards connection, versus isolation. Toward sharing, versus major privacy protection (I leave that to my Symantec/Norton Security whatever thingamajig). Nor is wearing the equivalent of sweatpants everyday and being sloppy FB'ers or Twitterers acceptable, no. I'm not advocating that. I'm just advocating that LinkedIn chill out.
Sure people say it's about "business" networking, versus "social" networking. Whatever. To me, it's pretty much all the same. Why? Because smart people are always thinking about their careers and the world, no matter if they're at an official trade show seminar, or at the after-party happy hour. Whether they're on LinkedIn, or Twitter, or Facebook, or even Myspace.
All I'm sayin' is, if you don't wanna "connect" with me on LinkedIn, don't. I can take the heat. Not everyone's gonna love ya. And if you don't like me and wanna stay away on Facebook, feel free to do that too. And if you wanna follow me on Twitter, or not, be my guest. I enjoy all of your posts and the folks I follow.
But as for LinkedIn? I'm thinking they might as well call it LockedOut. This is one party that even if I were Michelle Obama, I don't think I'd feel that great about attending, no matter how swell I looked.
-Francesca Maxime
June 9, 3:22pm
fmaxime@post.harvard.edu H-R 1993-1994
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