I love LinkedIn and I hate LinkedIn.
Unlike some of my early sales mentors, I was never one to preciously build and guard my box full of alphabetically sorted business cards. I was originally uninspired to join LinkedIn when it was introduced to me as a virtual business card box. I succumbed. The ability to get insights into the tech industry was good. The ability to share a message and content with my contacts became very important. Being able to see who had moves companies and who had been promoted was very useful. I had never used any paid service of LinkedIn and thought it a nice free platform. At this point I remained na?ve.
I played a corporate golf event at the Terry Hills golf club in 2011 and started up a conversation with some people that worked for LinkedIn. They described themselves as being in enterprise sales. I was a little confused – this was a free virtual card box, what could they be selling. They really did not elaborate on this as clearly, I did not fall within their target market.
More recently I was talking to my marketing team about running some targeted adds for our products online. Linked was suggested as the best option. We sat together in the boardroom and looked at our options as to how targeted our message could be. Wow. The granular detail I could go to, took my breath away. There were many options, but the result was I could target all my competitors’ customers – it was simple as that. If I could do that then anyone could do the same to my customers.
It felt dirty. It brought back my golfing conversation. The enterprise sales team sell me, and they sell you. They sell everything about you. Everything about any group you join. About everywhere you worked. About what you are interested in. About what software you use and what conferences you attend. Should you care or be concerned? Should it be this easy to target such a granular market?
A few years ago, I posted a job in Linked in. Within seconds LinkedIn provided me with a list of people that they thought I should target. These were not people applying for my job – but just people who they thought I should poach. This must be happening to everyone that works for me. How often they are popping up as recommendations in other peoples search? Why was I supporting a platform that would try and steal my valued team members – who were not even looking for a job?
I do not have all the answers to these scenarios. It has reinforced the importance of always doing the best possible job I can at running this company. On our office wall, positioned where I can see it multiple times a day are the words ‘Bien faire et laisser dire’ which I translate to ‘Do well and let them talk’. To me this means that if we do our best to produce great products, inspire and look after our staff and we care for our customers then good results will flow. Linked may be and Angel or a Devil or perhaps both – but we need to be us.
p.s. The irony is not lost that I am posting this on linked in