Is the Death of LinkedIn Here? I Really Don't Know
This post was originally written on January 14th of this year. It was originally titled, "Is LinkedIn Dead? I Hope Not." Now, I just don't know. I really don't. Some of the things I wrote then now seem prophetic. I wonder if Javier and Juan ever read it.
I've added notes to the original text in italics. I would also put them in another color, but I can't. (hint, hint)
Originally, I thought Twitter could kick LinkedIn's ass. They probably could. But they haven't made a move. Of course, I hadn't heard of beBee yet.
If it wasn't for John White, I probably still wouldn't have heard about it. In case I forget, let me thank John right here and now.
Here goes...
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Today, I read the seventh post in as many days from someone who is saying goodbye. That upsets me. I’ll do my best to make sure this post doesn’t cross over into a rant. It won’t be easy.
My LinkedIn Journey: The Story of a Born-Again
It started back in early summer of 2003. I was divisional GM of a Canadian IT outfit. One morning, one of our reps came to see me for authorization to unblock this thing called LinkedIn. He thought it would be a great business tool.
I agreed to look into it.
Within a few hours of signing up, I had several job solicitations. LinkedIn was just a glorified CV posting site. I wanted to keep my reps.
LinkedIn stayed blocked.
Fast-forward to mid-March 2015. A man, whose opinion I value, suggested I look at LinkedIn again.
My, my, my how things can change in twelve years!
The CV posting tool I saw in 2003 had morphed into a worldwide tribe of active professionals. Better still, these professionals were constantly Networking. They were making Connections. They were making Contacts. They were developing Relationships. They were doing Business.
I liked it!
In June of 2015, I discovered the publishing platform.
Mind = Blown!
Imagine 350,000,000 professionals sharing their thoughts, ideas, and experiences on an integrated blogging platform. It was earth-shattering.
I did the math. If just one measly percent of members published just once a month, that would be 3,500,000 posts a month.
Mind = Blown, again!
I jumped in with both feet. Damn the torpedoes. Full steam ahead! Insert your cliché of choice here.
I blush as I write this. (I blush again as I re-read it)
Blushing aside, the experience has proven beneficial. LinkedIn has allowed me to connect with many people I now consider friends. You know who you are.
It has also given me a showroom for my writing.
It has brought me clients.
My, my, my, how things can change in a few short months.
A few months, and 71 posts later, (85 now, + 37 for clients) I see the reality. There are not 3,500,000 monthly posts. There are "only" about 600,000. Most of these are from an army of active writers.
We number closer to 100,000 than 3,500,000. Our true number is unknown. Many estimate it far lower.
That’s not 1%. It’s somewhere South of 0.25%.
We provide the content. We provide the reason people come to LinkedIn often. Without us, why come here at all except to update your CV once in a while?
(The prophetic part follows...)
Supposing that’s true, a competitor would not need to steal 450,000,000 members. They would just need to entice 100,000 or so.
That's much easier. (Javier and Juan are proving this)
Exodus Redux
The first to say goodbye was one of my staunchest early supporters. Not only did he stop being active, he deleted his profile. Others soon followed.
Some returned. Most stayed away.
There is a veritable tsunami of discontent within the author community on LinkedIn. It threatens to wash LinkedIn away.
Writing on LinkedIn is like having a psycho girlfriend. When it’s good, it’s GREAT! When it’s bad, OMG!
Lately, there's been a lot of bad. There are so many Angry Author posts that they should have their own Pulse channel.
Often, I’m angry at LinkedIn. More often, I feel sorry for them. They live with a Damocles Sword over their head every day.
Sometimes I wonder if they even realize it.
One thing that has saved LinkedIn.
We have an investment here. It's a commitment to our readers. Here we have access to them. At least, we did.
Now, LinkedIn throttles our organic reach. Even first level connections don't get flagged notifications of posts.
Damocles is at it again. Open the notification floodgates and readers shout, "Spam!" Close them and you piss off the authors that bring the readers.
Authors only make up an itsy-bitsy percentage of the whole. Better to piss them off than the general membership. That's shortsighted.
That's shortsighted.
What if we leave? ( and leave we are)
Another thing that has saved LinkedIn.
There is no true, viable alternative. No other platform provides us the same access to our readership. Other platforms make the blogging process painless. None combines the two. (until now)
An alternative platform must allow access to our readers. By default, that means either Facebook or Twitter. No one else has the clout. (To be fair, I hadn't heard of beBee yet)
Let’s face it, everyone on LinkedIn is also on one or both of these platforms.
Is Twitter making a move?
Right now, Twitter’s 140 character limit is an issue. It’s for micro-blogging not blogging.
It’s impossible to write a meaningful post in 140 characters, but Twitter is great for publicizing posts.
Publicizing posts on Twitter involves tweeting a title and a link to a post. You can also add an image. The character limit is so tight that you can't add a full link. You need to use a shortening service. (Twitter actually condenses any link to 20 characters. I use bitly to drop it even more. I'm not even sure it actually accomplishes that, but hey)
Twitter followers don’t get flag notifications of posts/tweets. Tweets just go on their tweet feeds. They may see it. They may not.
Oh wait, that’s what LinkedIn does too for the most part.
You need to tweet often. Twitter acknowledges this fact and provides a mechanism for scheduling tweets. (they also have the best API. You can make it roll-over, sit up, and bark)
LinkedIn does not. (And they cut their API down to the point that it's a bad joke)
Twitter is talking about raising the character limit
If we can believe the press, the new limit will be 10,000 characters. That’s twice the number of characters in my longest post. That’s big enough to tweet a case study or a smallish white-paper. That's way bigger than we need.
Will Twitter follow through? If so, how will they do it?
Will it be Medium-esque in that they have a title, a short excerpt, and a link? Will Twitter separate long posts from Tweets?
Will new posts be flagged? Will they just share the newsfeed?
Will Twitter create a writing platform? How will they treat images within posts?
Who the Hell knows? Twitter ain’t sayin’. (And, apparently, not doing either)
If I were LinkedIn, I’d worry.
Twitter has the luxury of looking at what LinkedIn did right and what they did wrong.
They can keep what’s right and fix what’s wrong.
All they need to do is recruit the right 100,000 people to use it. That shouldn't be difficult. Most of us are actively looking for alternatives. Most of us are already Twitter members. (you can substitute "beBee" for "Twitter." It still works)
I thought Facebook was making a move last summer.
I was wrong. I don’t think their heart was in it. It isn't often we can say this, but Facebook just didn't get it. I think they assumed that it was Influencers who provided the meat for LinkedIn Publishing.
They started Instant Articles with newspapers and magazines. They ignored us Average Joes.
Dumb idea.
(That seems to be changing now. But I doubt it will ever be worthwhile. Facebook's focus is elsewhere)
Twitter is a different story. Twitter is not a cash machine. They need to steal someone’s lunch. They need to do it soon.
And there’s a lunch bag. It's just sitting there unattended...
And beBee stepped in and stole LinkedIn's lunch, right out from under Twitter's nose.
Good for you, Boys!
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Comments
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
7 years ago #33
yes, i switched it to english and I can enjoy all the features. LI discriminates to the non english speakers.
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #32
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #31
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
7 years ago #30
Paul Croubalian the problem is that LI dont show the link / button for non english speaking countries. That is amazing
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #29
@Goran Svensson It is free to post on LinkedIn as Marcel Arvizu said. The results do vary with what you mentioned but not very much. Topic is the only big one. LI limits your reach. I have 1400+ on LinkedIn but only an unknown number get notified of a post. My guess is about 7-10%. I also seems that percentage is shrinking.
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
7 years ago #28
Hi Goran Svensson, did you try the bebee's publishing platform ? https://www.bebee.com/producer . you are right, you can only write on LI if you have your interface in english. beBee's opportunity is huge, because anyone from anywhere can do it. LI only think on english speakers, and BB thinks on anyone.
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #27
Anne Fyans: Believe me, we've tried. We've had gripe sessions, we've posted about our discontent, we've cried, screamed, cajoled. We pretty much tried everything. At one point, we were asked if we could join in on a conference call to air the laundry (as it were). That never happened. I, for one will not close my account in protest. Nor will I just gradually fade away. I now use LinkedIn to promote my posts. I no longer use it as my hub. I may reconsider if only to get to the 100-post level. There are only 15 to go.
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #26
Jim Murray I jokingly mentioned that maybe FB or some other platform placed a mole deep with LinkedIn. That mole rose within the ranks and is now in a position of power. He or she is doing his/her true master's bidding. To destroy LinkedIn from within! There is really no other business reason for one stupid idea after another. The only positive thing they have done in the 10 months I've been there is to use Twitter card formats for click-to-tweets. Even I go farther than that with a simple link.
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #25
Javier C\u00e1mara Rica We see proof of your commitment every day. I'm not worried. Proper engagement comes with time. I read a study that says a person reads/views 10.4 pieces of content before they even consider connecting. Today, I spoke with a new client who has been quietly following my posts since JULY!!! It isn't an overnight thing. It takes work. It takes commitment, form the author AND the platform. We understand that. That why we chose to come here.
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
7 years ago #24
Jim Murray
7 years ago #23
Anne Fyans I don't think anyone wants to throw the baby out with the bathwater. But I do believe that LinkedIn is doing whatever it can to shift itself away from being a free network. A very small percentage of people pay to belong to LI. Since they went public the pressure is on to monetize. But the truth is that the contributions of writers like Paul, Phil Friedman and literally hundreds of others is worth at least 10 times the $$$ of a premium membership. But instead of showing any appreciation for that, they take away the one thing that the writers are happy to contribute for, which is the notifications that help build their following. This is piss poor management. Period. Lack of vision. Lack of appreciation. Lack of professionalism. And while LinkedIn can be fixed, and rather easily, that's not gonna happen until there's a change of management and even then, who knows.
Jim Murray
7 years ago #22
Jim Murray
7 years ago #21
Anne...I don't think anyone wants to throw the baby out with the bathwater. But I do believe that LinkedIn is doing whatever it can to shift itself away from being a free network. A very small percentage of people pay to belong to LI. Since they went public the pressure is on to monetize. But the truth is that the contributions of writers like Paul, Phil Friedman and literally hundreds of others is worth at least 10 times the $$$ of a premium membership. But instead of showing any appreciation for that, they take away the one thing that the writers are happy to contribute for, which is the notifications that help build their following. This is piss poor management. Period. Lack of vision. Lack of appreciation. Lack of professionalism. And while LinkedIn can be fixed, and rather easily, that's not gonna happen until there's a change of management and even then, who knows.
Jim Murray
7 years ago #20
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #19
It's not much of a problem, Javier C\u00e1mara Rica that came out and said it. That shows a lot of class.
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
7 years ago #18
dont worry, we have to move a little bit that button. We will recover it. This is not a place to censor !
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #17
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #16
Anne Fyans: It's very true that anything broken can be fixed,. All it takes is the will to do so. Failing that, repair becomes impossible and replacement the only option. LinkedIn was my primary platform for personal posts and as a writing showroom to prove I can "walk the talk." I use Twitter to promote them. Now LinkedIn is part of the promotion process, not the hub.
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
7 years ago #15
I fully agree with Pascal Derrien. LI and BB are complimentary. The first one is strictly professional (focused on jobs and sales), and the second one, is networking with people that shares the same hobbies or professional interests. Although LI is big , usually best opportunities comes from new and disruptive concepts ;-)
Pascal Derrien
7 years ago #14
I think people should do what works for them I dont think it is a question of either / or it can be both or more my personal take 1 post on LI a month and other posts if I have time to write some on BB
Pascal Derrien
7 years ago #13
I have seen it and I am pretty sure they noticed too will interesting to see if they react :-)
Pascal Derrien
7 years ago #12
agree with Jan I think they (LI & BB) can be complimentary as they are different platforms, culturally and strategically at a different stage too
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
7 years ago #11
thanks Jan Johnston Osburn ! I appreciate it ! we will listen ! We try to please everyone, although is not possible to please to the 100% of our bees. We will work for improving the service day after day.
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
7 years ago #10
Paul Croubalian, to be honest, I use LI for promoting beBee :-)
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #9
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #8
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #7
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #6
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #5
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #4
don kerr
7 years ago #3
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #2
Merci encore une fois, Laurent BOSCHERINI
Laurent Boscherini
7 years ago #1