Way back in April I uploaded an entry talking about how there were too many social networking websites out there. Well, this topic has been in my mind again lately. If you go back and read that entry from April, you’ll see that I had just deleted my Plaxo account because it was useless. Also in that entry you’ll find this:
I’ve begun to think about whether or not my LinkedIn profile is even worth it. LinkedIn is supposed to be for people who are trying to reconnect, but generally in a business sense. However, Facebook pretty much offers the same service. So I’m not sure if it’s worth it to keep a LinkedIn page up and running. Sure, I have some nice recommendations of my work on the LinkedIn page, but I can always get that somewhere on Facebook.
Well, this post is being written on the heels of deleting my account at LinkedIn. Overall, I just didn’t see the need to try to maintain an additional networking “profile” at LinkedIn. Yes, I had a lot of “connections,” but I didn’t see much of a value in the LinkedIn membership. Everyone who I was connected to was either someone that I was already connected to on Facebook or someone from my fraternity that I never met because he went to a school out in the Midwest or the West Coast. Sure, it’s cool that we were in the same organization, but if you’re connecting with me on LinkedIn and you’re either out of work or engaged in a career that doesn’t cross mine at all, then it’s really a useless connection.
Side note – I had so many connections that I couldn’t automatically delete my account! Apparently, if you have more than 100 connections (I think I had 105), an actual human being has to okay the deletion of your account. For some reason I find that interesting.
That’s another social networking site down…which one could be next?
Personally, I find MySpace to become more and more irrelevant.
the best decision i made was to delete my http://hyves.com profile. it’s a relief and it saves time. and you can brag about it to your friends. hyves, btw is a dutch facebook look-alike. linkedin with 1000+ contacts i won’t delete. i think facebook w/ 380 contacts would be next. it’s for highschool students, i feel, with those silly quizzes.
I can see where you’d want to delete your LinkedIn account — to some it seems superfluous in tandem with Facebook. I always tell people, they should have named LinkedIn “Six Degrees of Separation.” The power is in the connection of your connections. If you’re in a business where your connections could be helpful to your company’s mandate as a whole (i.e. service oriented businesses), then it’d be foolish not to get everyone online and share your online rolodex.
LinkedIn is still more of a professional, business oriented social network so for many, it’s a natural, easier place to enter the Socialmediasphere. Especially if it’s their first one.
I love this article about LinkedIn versus Facebook from the Digital Marketer, of the Quick and Dirty Tips network: http://bit.ly/OiHqy
When it comes to LinkedIn be open to its possibilities and in the end, make the best, most strategic decision for you and your business.
Martin – I agree that MySpace is becoming a bit useless. I’m beginning to think that even though there are a few friends and family that are still on MySpace, I might just delete that account next. For some reason, I feel like one Facebook account is really all that I need to keep in touch with everyone.
tomv – I would disagree that Facebook is for high school students, especially given the history of the site. I would agree, however, that it is a little ridiculous to constantly have stuff like, “Monica scored 86% on the How New Jersey are You? Test!” Really? Am I supposed to care? Those tests, though, do show you just how little some people actually have to do in a day!
Rochelle V. – Nice little website you’ve got there – good luck with the redesign! I had a bunch of connections on my LinkedIn account, but I didn’t see the overall purpose of the website for someone in my profession (a nonprofit financial services organization). I do think, however, that I made the best, most strategic decision for me, my current profession, and my growing small business.
Thanks for the comments, guys!
We can put a man on the moon, build nano technology and we are on the brink of finding a cure for cancer and Aids but the college educated guys from Linkedin cannot find it within the realms of their intelligence to provide a simple way for their customers to downgrade their account.
I can just picture it now – the production meeting where the already rich guys behind Linkedin figure out exactly how much more money they are going to make. One eager employee stands up with a PowerPoint presentation with the following charts.
1. How many people sign up for internet subscriptions and will forget about it.
2. How many people will give up if you make it hard for them to cancel their subscription
3. How much money they will make from the % of people who sign up who fall into the above category.
4. How many cars you can buy with all that money.
I, obviously, am a disgruntled customer who has tried and failed on several occasions to cancel my Linkedin account. I filled in the online customer form several times. The clever guys at Linkedin made it so that you cant contact them directly so you have no record of any disputes. “What email? We never got that one?” they will ask when you argue with them.
Now Mastercard informs me I am $200 poorer and Linkedin are $200 richer for a service which I only wanted to send one bloody email from and tried to cancel 3 times.
Well, I have a statistic for all the other disgruntled customers out there like me.
If 1% of Linkedin’s credit card transactions are disputed by their customers, Visa and Mastercard will close their account and will suspend Linkedin’s ability to take money from any credit cards for a very long time.
If you, like me, have been ripped off and ignored by Linkedin the please ensure you notify your credit card company and dispute your payment.
Assholes.