Why LinkedIn is getting it wrong, so very wrong

 

I was at a very good networking breakfast this morning and before we’d even sat down at our tables, 3 people had mentioned the recent changes on LinkedIn to me.

Why on earth were they receiving so many endorsements? What are endorsements about? Why do people I hardly know endorse me for my “Bread Making”? were some of the questions raised.And one person who commented was confused by the etiquette about how to deal with endorsements: should he respond in kind, could he “risk” ignoring someone, possibly someone who he didn’t even know at the risk of upsetting a potential client?

But the main question was: why are they doing this?

The answer is of course pretty simple: it’s about increasing the perceived value of the LinkedIn network. More endorsements, generate more notifications, generate more site visits, generate better site metrics, which all creates a bigger $ value.

And it’s important to note that it is a $ value, which might go down well in the USA, rather than a £ value. Because I’m pretty sure that the £ value is being eroded by a change that has not been desired or requested and is now going to erode the British usage of what until now has been a pretty good network. How could they get it so wrong?

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