The LinkedIn 36%....who are you hiding from?
I have an interest in data, specifically data that tells me about people. However, my close colleagues also know that I am a promoter of using data responsibly. What does responsible mean? Well, for me it means to collect and use data in a manner that respects the interests of the individual. Yet, in a data driven society there are times my desire to know and the regard for the interests of my audience, are at odds. For example:
36% LinkedIn Anonymity
I subscribe to LinkedIn’s service that permits me to see who has visited my profile page. Just like any marketing manager responsible for a website I have a genuine interest in knowing who my audience is. Recently I have noticed a trend about visits to my profile page. The traffic is on the increase, but more professionals are also seeking to be anonymous. In fact, 36% of the people visiting my web page were anonymous. My sample size (> 500 hundreds of profile visits) clearly shows a desire for privacy. I also have noticed a 10% increase in anonymity over 6 months (~20% expected annually).
Desire for Professional Privacy
I think that 36% anonymity is a lot. I mean, what is the entire purpose of being on LinkedIn? Is it not to help form business relationships for mutual gain? Why are more and more people seeking to be hidden? I think the reason I am seeing more anonymity is that people increasingly want more control. They want to be in the position of controlling their data, who has access to it, and the terms of who can communicate with them. Or, maybe there are just more recruiters now on LinkedIn and they want to protect their anonymity to avoid deluge of applicants following up on their visits. It is hard to really know the reason why.
Also, I wonder about the 20% rate of increase? Could it be pushback resulting from the increased use of LinkedIn as a direct marketing platform? I know I have expressed dissatisfaction several times to the “feedback” gods about that practice. After all, if I am paying a monthly subscription I sure as heck to not want to have to also sort through irrelevant ads (Yes, despite targeting they are almost always irrelevant.) Again, it is hard to know the reason why.
Hey, 36% is Still Way Less than 81%
Maybe 36% anonymity is not that large? After all on November 2nd 2014, Pew Research issued a report entitled “Public Perceptions of Privacy and Security in the Post-Snowden Era” According to the report “81% of people who use social networking sites expressed concern about third parties such as advertisers and businesses accessing the data they share on these sites.” Also interesting was that social networkers were more concerned about commercial use than governmental abuse.
Controlling Data Access, Who to Trust?
The phenomenon of an increase in the expressed desire for anonymity seems at odds with what I suspect is LinkedIn’s desire to capitalize on people networking. Does the social network industry feel it is in a bit of a quandary? How do you balance one persons’ desire for insight into a prospective customer with another members’ desire for privacy? Just how long can identity and attention brokers continue to ignore the elephant in the room? Are they in denial, or has the tide turned in the face of continued missteps and abuse? Consider the comments of the CEO of Facebook in 2010 on privacy and today’s recent market research on customers true sentiments. What does your gut tell you?
36% Impact on Revenue & Opportunity?
One thing I have not seen is LinkedIn actively promoting the capability to turn off the sharing of your identity with the LinkedIn community or enabling members to deny access to corporate recruiters despite potentially being happily employed. Why? Is it because of the money? If the majority of LinkedIn members started to seek more privacy from members, advertisers and corporate clients wouldn’t this undermine all the brokerage revenues? Would paying subscribers – stop paying?
When to Leave?
As a member of the LinkedIn community I certainly feel the loss of opportunity when I cannot see who has visited my page. Was it a good consulting opportunity? Was it a prospective speaking engagement? Was it a great investment or career opportunity? It is frustrating… just who is that 36%?
If member anonymity continues to increase there will come a time when a threshold is passed and those members who value insight and targeted communications may cancel their LinkedIn subscriptions to become non-paying members. Maybe this is one reason LinkedIn is pushing so hard to make its members into bloggers. Transforming from “member as product” to “member content as product.”
The Future
My data and, more importantly, the Pew research data makes clear that despite the proclamations of industry spin-machine, privacy is a big issue across all social networks. The future problem will be how can social networking vendors monetize the 81% of people that value privacy? After all, what incremental value is there over the “1: many” analog channels when members do not want to be known? How will social networks retain people not convinced that current web services are worth the risk of unfettered access and commercialization of their attention and data?
I confess that as an analytical manager data inspires me. For me the 36% is a very interesting number. The Pew research study is fascinating. And, it will be an adventure to see the how it all unfolds. My bet is that the ultimate solution will be the one that offers the best value to the customer.
See: Pew Research Study at: https://www.pewinternet.org/2014/11/12/public-privacy-perceptions/