Discussion on:

LinkedIn: What have you done?

Yeah, especially when LinkedIn asks you about endorsements in sets of 4 at a time, with the option to "endorse all" -- it seems like they're more interested in driving the usage of this feature on their site than they are in the quality of those endorsements. However, even though the noise:signal ratio may be high, perhaps the emerging peaks will have some significance. And pity the poor sod who gets none.

They are completely meaningless, the moment I was getting endorsements from a banker on my software engineering skills, I knew it was game over - everybody endorses everybody else t1t for tat.
I've removed all my entire "skills" section and just put them in as text and I don't endorse anyone - don't pity me, opt out of this nonsense too!

I too thought this was a good idea at first, something quicker than the recommend process. But I have co-workers, in a place of only 30 employees, endorsing me for skills that they have no background to know whether I'm good at them or not.

People have become too comfortable with Facebook and the "Like" concept such that anything that allows them to "click" to participate or "vote" or whatever, they will do without any forethought or discernment as to why they are clicking.

And forget about paying for their Premium service. The value of the added capabilities is nowhere near the cost of the upgrade.

First I got the the "free one month premium" assaults. Then the "you are one of the first million Canadians on LinkedIn" note, which did not impress me.

As for endorsements, yes, I find it cheap when someone I've met once endorses me....

The signal to noise ratio is not trending in a favourable direction.

LinkedIn (7 yr member) has become such a clutter, I've basically stopped using it. The ads are endless (people, groups, products), the 'endorsements' are, for the most part, invalid. If you want to endorse someone, take the time to write a recommendation. This came under discussion a few months ago .. 'you endorse me, I'll endorse you' and it's all automated. Note when you log in, it's one of the things you're prompted to do .. endorse people.

Many have found they don't know the person - from either direction - have no knowledge of their work or do know and wouldn't endorse it! Is it a 'like' list? Probably more a 'see and be seen' with somebody perceived as giving a boost to an employment effort .. or ego effort.

Overall value = zero.

The 'upgrade to premium' I see as a touch of social engineering. If you're trying to puff up your chest and look good to a company and then see that people are checking your profile, what's the first thought? It's that place you want to impress!!! Wow .. they just might have been looking!! Quick, upgrade .. pay $$$ so I can see!! And the other side is simple curiosity .. long lost girlfriend?? Ooops, that was Facebook, right?

I agree the value of LinkedIn is on a roll .. downhill.

I have been with LinkedIn for a few years now and have noticed it has become a more mainstream social networking site, as opposed to the more business savvy, network it once was. Linked In has resulted in some great opportunities that would otherwise be unfound or buried in a sea of garbage on other employment sites, Workopolis and Monster for example. So I have reaped the benefits of it being a more business focused site.

I was just saying yesterday though that it has become a lot more like Faceblech. Facebook is okay for tracking down an old school buddy an saying Hi but that's about it. I agree that I see LinkedIn going that way too. I know people who have no business experience, no technical experience or anything normally associated with LinkedIn, an yet they have a LinkedIn profile. I have noticed also that almost every page where you can log in to another site or comment using FaceBook and Twitter log ins, also now includes LinkedIn, which I think adds a lot more "unqualified" (for lack of a better term) users to start up Facebook profiles.

I've also had endorsements from people I've never heard of, I assume in hopes that I will endorse them for something, even not knowing them. This really detracts from a profile system where people could actually show their real merits by associate endorsements.

Of course, when it all comes down to it, the end result is page views to attract advertisers and money. The focus of the site seems to be getting lost in the social 'anyone is a hero ' network environment. It's too bad really because when I wanted to view real profiles of qualified businesses and research prospective clients etc. it was an excellent tool, which has now lost a lot of credibility and become just another social networking site.

I think they should stepo back and find their focus again. If it's ads and money, let me know and I'll kill my profile. If it's B2B networking, focus on it and work to eliminate the BS. As it stands now, endorsements, which seemed like a good idea at first, have lost all credibility. Now it's like Facebook when you log in, "do you know so and so?" "Do you want to endorse so and so?" NO. If I was searching for someone, great, if I was looking to network with a coworker or old associate and praise his abilities, great, DON'T suggest I do.

I assume any feedback to them on the matter would result in the Premium membership pitch, as if that would fix it.

Looking for something new now, LinkedIn has simply failed, in the name of the mighty dollar.

We need a site like this hosted by people who want to develop a real working B2B network and forget the ads and popularity contest. The only problem with THAT pipe dream is that it would be hosted from Canada, US or another nation where money is the only focus.

Too bad, really. LinkedIn was a great site a few years back too.

UPDATE: I just logged in to LinkedIn and it doesn't even open my profile page but goes straight to "We found 37 people you know on LinkedIn. Select the people you'd like to connect to
So I read through the list and found 2 out of 37 people I supposedly know that I actually DO know.

37 people I know include a firefighter in Lakeview (wherever that is), 3 different Wong's that I don't know (and who don't have a complete profile), a swimming instructor/lifeguard in Vancouver etc. My brother, who is already linked to me, and a former manager that I sued and who I wouldn't endorse for being able to write his name.

Skipping that step, I still haven't got to my page and now I have 67 people who aren't on LionkedIn yet and I can invite. One of them is ME! One is a band I used to manage and three are TechRepublic people, this must have been scooped from my GMAIL address book, however there are still a few I don't know, maybe spammers that were auto saved as address entries in GMail or something.

I haven't waded through their TOS or EULA or whatever they have but I'm sue there's a GMail connection in there somewhere, which doesn't really bother me because it's one of my junk mail/web log in accounts.

Talk about going to crap! I just went out on the patio for a smoke with a coworker and she asked if I use LinkedIn (coincidence?) she is new to it and said she was being asked to endorse people she'd never met. And on goes the hopeless cycle of money grabbing websites. I think I'll go back to finding pen pals and writing letters!

and it's got worse since I joined, especially the endorsement part. I feel kind of guilty in some ways not endorsing people who endorse me. I have done so for anything I can feel confident in their abilities, they just seem to keep clicking the pop-up each time they log on. It has gotten to the point where I'm sure one of my connections has actually endorsed me for technology that hadn't been released when we worked together - which completely defeats the object for me. Even more annoying they now send an email to let me know, isn't the notification at the top of the page adequate?

We had a post not so long back about the endorsement 'erm feature, and the same concerns were raised there.
The entire concept is based on all users being trusted professionals who wouldn't dream of doing *** for tat (oh come on PC boys, sort yourselves out) endorsements simply to raise their profile.

I was a little dubious about that assumption, when you then back it up with celebrity emails, it's shown to be complete drivel.

Haven't been on it for a while, and I may never go there again. If my inbox starts getting full, I shall simply cancel it. I'm on other sites including this one where the judgement of my peers has far more value than pressing Like on the basis that I'll get liked back. Even the people who don't particularly like me, don't take me for that sort of arse.

I can't count how many times I find more than one listing for the same person, often with one old profile and now a newer one. But it often takes some digging(aka direct contact) to be sure it is the same person. Apparently folks don't value their LinkedIn profile any more than a free email account.

Toni - I agree with your comments completely. Well done! The number of outstanding invitations I have where people claim to be friends or have worked with me when I do not have a clue as to who they are is astonishing. Needless to say they are residing in my filing tray. The original idea of a business platform was good (and still can be) and some old fashioned people like myself still want that so, those responsible for the site, please do not treat us like giddy schoolchildren in the playground competing for the largest group of friends and stick with the important relevant reasons for starting it in the first place.

To add to the above: i am getting repeated endorsement from the same person. Sometimes 5 a day. Unlikely. But the concept of endorsement is wrong. Of course, it should be used to evaluate people but if you endorse all your friends and all your friends endorse you, it gets deflated. I've been on LinkedIN for 4 years and so far, not a single useful connection. Akram

I agree with others who have noticed duplicate profiles (which isn't LI's fault) - and especially the "endorsement" thing. I make a conscious attempt to endorse ONLY what I know about a person - and some people I know fairly well, but don't know their expertise in X, so I don't endorse that.

I like the recommendations feature - but suspect that may become a load of BS if others just ego-stroke.

Guess nothing's perfect. But if I notice additional junk mail, I'll be gone.

My LinkedIn 'plaint are the messages that begin with, "We've noticed your e-mails have been piling up lately...". Really? The message goes on to say, paraphrasing, "We therefore have removed your name from the e-mail notifications for this group". Come on. That means I'm still a so-called group member but will never see postings unless I go back into setup and change the e-mail setting. LinkedIn never stopped to think that perhaps one could preview a group post without actually opening the message.

I truly don't understand these "we've changed your subscription" messages. (I tend to prefer the digests). Is it just to get me to actually log in to LI ? why?

I noticed this as well! Agree that the endorsement thing has devalued true endorsements, and the "you're one of the top viewed profiles!" is, to put it mildly, difficult to believe. Seems like it's back to the drawing board for the folks in charge of building the brand.

I shut them off through a junk mail rule.

I have been getting so much garbage from Linked In I just ignore the site now. I thought it was just me. College alumni group, former employers, special interest groups, etc. all are loaded with get rich quick garbage, totally irrelevant posts and total BS. I had hoped there would be useful posts and discussions but I find Facebook more relevant and it has much less SPAM.

Not to mention that they exposed a bunch of usernames and passwords due to sloppy security practices. More attention to security and less to puffery would have been a good thing.

Back in the early days of LinkedIn, I used to enjoy taking a quick look to see what my business associates were up to. Now, when one logs in, one is accosted by messages beginning, "LinkedIn Today Recommends for You...". I hardly think so. Did anyone ever stop to think that perhaps such so called "news" could be set in scrollable side panels? Now I realize the organization has to pay the bills, by why o why inconvenience the user community with nusance information right where one does not need to see it and interfers with information that is important to user wishing to access it? Help us, powers that be at LinkedIn, redesign the news presentation with a more optimal approach!

I think it is funny/annoying when you get the message at the top of the page that askes "What was your job description at ..." then they mention the school you attended. School was not my job, it was were I got my education.

The spam mails that appear to originate from LinkedIn are regularly caught in the company spam filter. I say "appear to originate" because I removed my work email address from LinkedIn some time ago so any current mails should not even be going there. I have suspected that some at least may have their true origin in the big identity theft last year.

Whatever the truth of this may be, I share the common opinion about "endorsements". Flattering as they may be, I often feel that I would not even endorse myself in some of the categories others have chosen.

As for "premium", I recall many years ago that Friends Reunited tried hard to persuade me in many emails that their paid-for level was worth having. After a period of studiously ignoring the mails, they stopped; I expect that LInkedIn will do the same.

The comments seem to be consistent that linkedin was better at one point, but better at what? I use it as a professional contact list, job site, and occasionally to do some preliminary research on a potential hire.

Like it or not, it cost money to run a site like linkedin, so they have to generate revenue is some form. Ads, premium memberships, posting costs, whatever.

Now it's good at supplying a pool of recipients for spammers and an audience for irrelevant advertising. I would have considered paying a fee for the service a few years back, but now? I don't think so. A discussion entitled "Found a cool contest for a $500 shopping spree for gold and silver!" is just not something that I'm willing to pay for, and I'm close to not putting up with it "for free."

Unless you are going to set your criteria as only peoplle with very few endorsements are professionals.

If you want increased hits, there are two ways to go, LinkedIn chose the other one..

It would be of value for one of the Linked-In decision makers to look at the comments listed here. Maybe they could get back on track, to grass roots business. I've been a member for years, but now find myself looking for a serious alternative, for the purpose of professional networking.

Yes the endorsement functionality is a little over the top and annoying. It keeps asking me if recruitment consultant that I know are any good at Software Development, Project Management, IT Strategy etc, Clearly most of them aren't as they are sales, not IT people. Either LinkedIn needs to separate people out that have this skill, or are recruiters for that particular skillset.

I am not sure though Toni, that you are not just a little upset that you were told that you are in the Top 5% and not the Top 1% (like me!) ? LOL

Depending upon how you define the word "tool". I have been a member forever. It was a professional site, found it useful for networking and the like. Things started trending down about a year ago with the 'premium' spam and self-promotion. But the 'endorsements' put it closer to Facebook than to the old LinkedIn. The ease of endorsing somebody's skills basically makes it useless. I've been endorsed for skills by people who have NEVER worked with me. I think they merely hope for endorsements back so they can have a better looking profile for a job search. Since that behavior appears to be endemic, it is no longer useful or trustworthy. I think the only ones who find it useful are the proliferation or recruiters who want to be linked to me so they can scan my network for prospects. How sad. The one site I was willing to pay for now become worth less than $0. My 2 cents.

I added the link to this article on my Linkedin 'page' to see what comments I get there. I'll add to my own spam load for a change

The LinkedIn implementation does show some promise, but has many broken aspects, especially that lame "Endorsement" treachery they set up some 6 months ago. Stupid Move, CEO Jeff Weiner! We get what you're trying to do, but you are offending us users that way!

It's also wrong for LinkedIn to inject a company oriented advertisement block *anywhere* in the list of our past jobs, because it wrongly gives the impression a person has worked there. Stupid and wrong again, Jeff!

Also, it is irritating the way when I attempt to make initial contact ( say with a long-lost colleague who was also a friend) I have to specify EITHER "Ex-Colleague" OR "Friend" ... and there are only 4 or 5 options in that list. After all, many colleagues were good friends before company implosions sent us to the winds. That option list needs a little expansion, and needs to allow multiple choice, and even a new entry field we can fill in ourselves.

Finally, the LinkedIn on-screen organization is just messy. You younguns who grew up on Facebook probably feel comfortable there but we businessmen want quick, clear, organized tables not splashes of info all over and all mixed up with adverts. I acknowledge those adverts pay for the free access we have, but if LinkedIn is targetting us business types please clean it up...or perhaps let us pick our own "theme" or "layout" to suit.

Bottom line: In principle I do like LinkedIn, but in practice they have lots of ways to improve;.

I've also have been getting fake "endorsements" for skills that I didn't even know I had. Any day now I'll be an astronaught !!! They must be programmatically generated. This tactic discourages me from ever considering the supposedly "pro" level membership. Clean up your business Mr. Weiner. If this continues I'm "LinkedOut" .

Bravo to our IT department for routing LinkedIn emails right into Junk Mail. These blatantly disingenuous spam initiatives are annoying.

Having said that, I can't wait until Angry Birds Office is offered on LInkedIn, you know?

This may be the 'feature' that finally gets me to delete my profile. A while back someone endorsed me for something I didn't even know how to use. This had a snowball effect and the endorsements started piling on. Then I started getting requests from recruiters. Now I have to spend time on a regular basis removing endorsements.

Some time ago I estimated that 20% of all profiles are dud or duplicates. I think that is connected with the fact that a lot of people are not so savvy in using the system and start a new profile instead of modifying an old one, and maybe do not know how to delete a duplicate when they discover it.

This new endorsement business raised my eyebrows, especially as a lot of the categories are meaningless, e.g. "knows about IT industry", not "is an expert C+ programmer". Trouble is, I feel I have to respond as I get these endorsements.

Somebody once asked me what I got out of LI, and I had to think about it. Probably, for me, the biggest element is simply keeping track of people.

I do not value any endorsements at LinkedIn because I, and other users, know how the endorse feature is implemented. Fast-moving business people are simply clicking yes, yes, yes and endorsing connections that they have not interacted with for years. It's more of a game using the basics of persuasion. Persuasion teaches that if I give you something, you are more inclined to give something in return to me. That is exactly how LinkedIn endorsements function. In the world of philanthropy that persuasion technique increases giving and is beneficial. In the LinkedIn world, that persuasion technique also increases reciprocal giving behavior but it is not beneficial. It's a poor usage of the reciprocity technique of persuasion.

Well that's disappointing, I got the email about being in the top 10% of the world on LinkedIN...and now I see 100% of the world got that email. #linkedlies

I've also noticed lately that some of the posts appear to be spam. These are "lose weight" type of posts which appear multiple time under different names. I've actually stopped signaling those posts because it was just rampant.

I have yet to see or hear anything from LinkedIn to explain these posts.and what they are doing about it.

Subject says it all.

Hi,

I fully agree with you, I feel that the more activity there is on LinkedIn, the less value it has. What is acceptable on Facbook, because thet's 'just the way it is", I expect a more professional behaviour from this network. BTW, I was in the top 5 of viewed profiles as well - not very credible indeed.
regarding the endorsements, it says as much on the people who click blindly as on the site itself. I must say that so far, I have only been asked to endorse people I was connected to, but of course, that does not mean I know all theirs skills. My principle is: if I know for sure, I endorse. If I don't know, or worse, if I feel it's not correct, I ignore.

Cheers,

Jean

To agree with what Toni said, Should it be called "LIKed-In"??

You said you had a communication from Linkedin saying one of the top 5% most viewed LinkedIn profiles for 2012! and that you "seriously doubt" it. You're right, because this e-mail did not come from Linkedin. I had a similar one and it was a very persuasive, official looking phishing message. Look at the links on it - they contain "http://e.linkedin.com/....", instead of "http://www.linkedin.com/....

Beware !

I wish LinkedIn would take note of this article, because it is becoming very annoying.