Monday 21 July 2014

Picture yourself at ... the mercy of LinkedIn

As the moderator of a couple of LinkedIn discussion groups, I find myself logging on to LinkedIn on a regular basis.  Indeed, between approving new members, moderating comments and deleting attempts to post commercial marketing and other unwanted content, I find myself on LinkedIn far more often than on Facebook or other social media.

Picture Yourself at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

  • Jeremy Phillips

Jeremy Phillips

Media and Communication at Freshfields 

This morning, on logging on, I found an image of my own smiling face next to the logo of leading international practice Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.  For the benefit of readers whose devices are not downloading images, my portrait and logo were presented beneath the heading "Picture Yourself at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer" and the caption beneath them read "Jeremy Phillips, Media and Communication at Freshfields".

While I have the greatest respect for Freshfields and enjoy the friendship and company of several people who work there, I was a little startled by this advertisement. My first thought was that this was not something that I had authorised and that others might see it too. I then decided that, most probably, LinkedIn's software was sufficiently subtle to enable the portrait of the account holder to be displayed only when the account holder logged in. My third thought was that this was presumably a cheap and cheerful way of advertising one's vacant positions only to those people whose interests and skills matched those sought by Freshfields. Clicking through to the link which Freshfields so thoughtfully provided, here, I then discovered that the firm's LinkedIn account has close on 26,000 followers. Who might they all be? Actual and prospective employees? Clients? Hopeful trainees? Information-gatherers from Freshfields' competitors? My final thought, somewhat mischievously, was that I could easily delete the heading, cut and paste the rest on to my email signature and make it look as though I was working for the firm:

  • Jeremy Phillips

Jeremy Phillips

Media and Communication at Freshfields 

All of this leads to the question: how important is LinkedIn to the small and sole practices that make up the core of this blog's readership?

7 comments:

  1. I've had no work from it and it has had an extremely minor role in keeping me in touch with contacts I've made. Maybe I'm not using it sufficiently, but I doubt it.

    For example I have had work from my very occasional blogging. More than once a small business owner has googled for an answer to a legal question, found a blog post I wrote about it and called me. Business relationships have followed.

    Even twitter - which I have no idea how to use and have only tried recently - has generated better connections.

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  2. Isn't Linked In just another of those annoying things that lets people target you when they want your advice, money or support, but which isn't nearly as easy to use when you are trying to get in touch with someone else?

    I logged in to Linked In today and didn't get asked to picture myself at Frshfields at all :-(

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  3. I take the view that a list of friends (in the proper sense) is kept for me by Facebook and a list of business contacts is kept for me by LinkedIn - there's little overlap / I don't expect to get business from LinkedIn / Groups on LinkedIn are simply another tool for dissemination of information .... and that's no bad thing !

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  4. I've had a few of these 'picture yourself at...' ads pop up on LinkedIn recently, but they seem to be about as well targeted as Google's generally are (not exactly surgical).

    I use LinkedIn because you almost have to have a profile by default in order to professionally exist, especially when working for yourself. I've noticed people viewing my profile almost as a first-stage filter before initiating direct contact. I'm not sure how much business it's driving my way, but I'm hoping that links from there to my own website actually help to drive traffic and rankings (although I'm only just beginning to understand how that particular dark art works).

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  5. I agree with Richard that people do look you up. I have not paid for premium membership has anybody any thoughts on that. Its alsoi handy for finding out about the other party or a trade mark applicant whose mark you may be opposing. Defintitely an aid to settlement that everyone should use

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  6. I find LinkedIn a good way of staying in touch with people as they move jobs. I have received bits of work from it over the years.

    Premium membership seems quite expensive for the benefits it brings.

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  7. interesting copyright notice on your website Richard - "© 2023 by Strategic Consulting. Proudly created with Wix.com"

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