LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation • Hacker News Board

Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation

#21

Post by FussyZeus » Wed, Feb 24, 2016, 5:33 PM UTC

eropple wrote: post #9

FussyZeus wrote: post #2

I have a LinkedIn profile because I was led, back in the day, to think that was the best way to put myself out there for businesses to find and hire me. I don't think I've gotten more than 50 views in the entire time I've had the thing, which is blown away by my personal website (which is still a tiny number of views, but swamps LinkedIn). That and every time I connect with someone or make the mistake of clicking on…

On the flip side, I get a ton of views of my profile. I indiscriminately accept recruiter requests, because it increases the spread of second and third-degree connections who'll see me in searches. I get two orders of magnitude more profile views than does my website, and I've turned off every email LinkedIn wants to send me. But, then, I'm a consultant, and having people find me is important. A lot of the messages I…

How much of that communication would you say is useful? If it's not prying too much, how much of that would you say leads to actual business?

Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation

#22

Post by henrik_w » Wed, Feb 24, 2016, 5:33 PM UTC

FWIW, I still get value from LinkedIn. The best parts for me:

- one place for contact information

- job offers (most of the ones I receive are relevant)

- being able to "check people out", i.e. see where they have worked before, common contacts etc

I'm in Sweden (if that's relevant). I wrote more about it here: http://henrikwarne.com/2013/08/21/linkedin-good-or-bad/

Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation

#23

Post by SixSigma » Wed, Feb 24, 2016, 5:39 PM UTC

I click on LinkedIn every day. I like the news feed, my network provides useful stuff to read that I wouldn't find otherwise.

I have connections that are more appropriate than on Facebook because our relationships are professional social not friend social. I don't want their baby pictures & holiday photos but I do want to hear about their business and comment on their business writing.

Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation

#24

Post by mathattack » Wed, Feb 24, 2016, 5:40 PM UTC

I'm not so bearish on LinkedIn.

It serves a few useful purposes:

1 - Before any meeting I look to see if there's something I share in common (person, interest, job, etc) with the other person. This was especially important when I was in Sales.

2 - When I was job hunting, I did a lot of "Look up the job, then see if I knew someone who knew someone at the company" that would've been impossible without it.

3 - I use it for recruiting. The response rate is very low when HR uses it, but as the hiring manager it isn't too bad.

LinkedIn has the highest value users of any service - professionals making good money. If they can figure out good ways to monetize it, they'll blow through their current valuation issues.

Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation

#25

Post by henrik_w » Wed, Feb 24, 2016, 5:51 PM UTC

martinshen wrote: post #16

Personally, I've used LinkedIn for recruiting tech talent, being recruited and most recently, doing biz dev (aka sales). Stray observations: 1. LinkedIn has too many products like sales navigator that attempt to force you through a specific workflow. While it can work, it feels a lot like a misguided tracking system. 2. LinkedIn is most useful as an online resume. Whenever I am meeting someone new or want a refresher…

As for point 6: I only connect with people I know. Every once in a while I get a connection request from some random person , but I always say no if I don't know them (even if we are in the same industry).

I think the whole value of connections is diluted otherwise. A connection doesn't mean anything. So that's what I see as the disadvantage of adding as many contacts as possible.

Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation

#26

Post by ydt » Wed, Feb 24, 2016, 5:57 PM UTC

henrik_w wrote: post #25

martinshen wrote: post #16

Personally, I've used LinkedIn for recruiting tech talent, being recruited and most recently, doing biz dev (aka sales). Stray observations: 1. LinkedIn has too many products like sales navigator that attempt to force you through a specific workflow. While it can work, it feels a lot like a misguided tracking system. 2. LinkedIn is most useful as an online resume. Whenever I am meeting someone new or want a refresher…

As for point 6: I only connect with people I know. Every once in a while I get a connection request from some random person , but I always say no if I don't know them (even if we are in the same industry). I think the whole value of connections is diluted otherwise. A connection doesn't mean anything. So that's what I see as the disadvantage of adding as many contacts as possible.

I agree with you in principle and in the past only accepted connection requests from people I know as well. However, I think LinkedIn's promise as professional social network has really diminished over the years and mostly functions as nothing more than a job board at this point. I probably have about 100 recruiters I have never met in person in my network. As a contract dev updating my profile serves as a way to push notify these people that I'm in the market. It's really the only value I see left in the platform.

Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation

#27

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Feb 24, 2016, 5:58 PM UTC

martinshen wrote: post #16

Personally, I've used LinkedIn for recruiting tech talent, being recruited and most recently, doing biz dev (aka sales). Stray observations: 1. LinkedIn has too many products like sales navigator that attempt to force you through a specific workflow. While it can work, it feels a lot like a misguided tracking system. 2. LinkedIn is most useful as an online resume. Whenever I am meeting someone new or want a refresher…

[deleted]

Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation

#28

Post by eropple » Wed, Feb 24, 2016, 5:59 PM UTC

FussyZeus wrote: post #21

eropple wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flip side, I get a ton of views of my profile. I indiscriminately accept recruiter requests, because it increases the spread of second and third-degree connections who'll see me in searches. I get two orders of magnitude more profile views than does my website, and I've turned off every email LinkedIn wants to send me. But, then, I'm a consultant, and having people find me is important. A lot of the messages I…

How much of that communication would you say is useful? If it's not prying too much, how much of that would you say leads to actual business?

It's no worse than most sales channels, but my situation has been complicated in that I haven't really had the available bandwidth for more work. I spend maybe twenty minutes a week on LinkedIn and I ignore every message that doesn't mention a walrus (my profile explicitly says "mention a walrus"), so my effort level is very low.

Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation

#29

Post by codingdave » Wed, Feb 24, 2016, 6:03 PM UTC

henrik_w wrote: post #25

martinshen wrote: post #16

Personally, I've used LinkedIn for recruiting tech talent, being recruited and most recently, doing biz dev (aka sales). Stray observations: 1. LinkedIn has too many products like sales navigator that attempt to force you through a specific workflow. While it can work, it feels a lot like a misguided tracking system. 2. LinkedIn is most useful as an online resume. Whenever I am meeting someone new or want a refresher…

As for point 6: I only connect with people I know. Every once in a while I get a connection request from some random person , but I always say no if I don't know them (even if we are in the same industry). I think the whole value of connections is diluted otherwise. A connection doesn't mean anything. So that's what I see as the disadvantage of adding as many contacts as possible.

I reply to messages from random people who ask to connect with an email telling them that if they have a reason they want to talk to me, please send me an email about it.

Most people never reply, so I presume they are just trying to bump up their numbers.

Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation

#30

Post by vadym909 » Wed, Feb 24, 2016, 6:14 PM UTC

I think the author just made this up in an hour with some weak arguments.

No doubt LinkedIn is becoming very spammy from all the puzzles and (gasp) personal stuff like 'My son-in-law is having an operation, please pray for him'.

However, the value that most people derive from it and the ease with which you can ignore the spam will keep it being used until there is non-spammy, non-recruiter funded and 'open networking' alternate.