From time to time, I see blogs entreating me to Keep LinkedIn Professional. The authors seem concerned that LinkedIn is becoming too much like Facebook and Twitter—that it’s deteriorating into a place where people might start sharing pictures of their business lunches or posting random selfies with Richard Branson and Warren Buffett.
I can only speak for myself, but I’ve yet to notice a mass outbreak of “loosening up” on LinkedIn. When I first joined LI, it was to fulfill a new line in my job description: Admin social media pages for SCG and its clients. That’s not why most people join, however. Many sign up because they’re looking for a new job or any job, so I understand the tendency to treat the Network as a virtual employment interview. This layer of formality has always made me view LinkedIn as a kind of online office party where the owner of the company is in attendance. Everyone is told to enjoy themselves, but most people are afraid to actually do it.
I say this because I don’t notice many rank and file LinkedIn users posting original content. They share blogs, infographics, and inspirational and motivational content, but they don’t often create it. Maybe they’re afraid of looking unprofessional or making a mistake. Maybe that’s why I’ve never seen LinkedIn users posting Thank You’s to colleagues who helped out on a project or sharing something they learned about their profession that day.
One of my Facebook/Twitter clients asks me to create special posts each month to acknowledge people celebrating work anniversaries. Every week, they expect me to share content from their branches celebrating the achievements and milestones of individual team members. It’s a great retention strategy that could easily be employed on LinkedIn, but in my experience—isn’t.
LinkedIn itself reminds us to congratulate people celebrating work anniversaries and even encourages us to write a few personal thoughts. Is it possible that the World’s Largest Professional Network is actually trying to get its users to be more social? Each new call to “Keep LinkedIn Professional” makes me view the Network with a modicum of sympathy. LinkedIn is giving a (slightly formal) party, and everyone is afraid to enjoy it.
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