Thanks for the 30-second warm glow, LinkedIn

I felt special for 30 seconds this morning, after LinkedIn sent me an e-mail that read:

Victoria, congratulations!

You have one of the top 5% most viewed LinkedIn profiles for 2012. LinkedIn now has 200 million members. Thanks for playing a unique part in our community!

Then I did the math and realized that 5 percent of LinkedIn’s 200 million registered users equals 10 million people—a number approximately the same size as the entire population of Sweden, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Hungary, or Tunisia.

Update on 13 February 2013:

This week it seems many LinkedIn users have posted generic notifications from LinkedIn similar to the one above. Mary Beth Smith, owner of the very active Market Your Printing Company and Girls Who Print discussion groups, even commented that she had to start deleting them to keep legitimate discussions from disappearing off the board.
http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=2946757&type=member&item=212988288&qid=e6f55abb-a3ea-42a9-b4d0-fad124a3ddf3&trk=group_most_popular-0-b-cmr&goback=%2Egmp_2946757%2Egde_2946757_member_212988288%2Egmp_2946757%2Eamf_2946757_13002312%2Egmp_2946757

I have to wonder why users are proving so cooperative at playing along with LinkedIn’s self-promotion scheme.  Is it because they’re delighted by the ease of regurgitating ready-made, host-approved content, even though in enlightened social-media practice going generic is the 9^th Deadly Sin?
http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/9-mistakes-youre-making-on-linkedin.html 

It’s also worth emphasizing that, although democracy is supposedly the underlying principle behind social media, in this instance LinkedIn has imposed a self-advertising monster from on high that will clutter the platform with redundant, user-unfriendly content for days or weeks to come.

 

More gains in popularity and investment value for LinkedIn

Further to my post of 2 November 2012 http://vicg8hr.blogspot.ca/2012/11/growing-numbers-think-linkedin-is-good.html, LinkedIn has reaffirmed its status as the biggest social-media success story based on the continued escalation of its number of users, revenues, and stock-market returns for investors. 

Among the highlights of recent financial reports:

• LinkedIn’s stock price has increased by over 230 percent from its initial public offering in May 2011.
• Every quarter since it went public, the company has exceeded analysts’ expectations.
• After it reported an 81 percent increase in fourth-quarter revenue on Thursday, its stock skyrocketed 21 percent of Friday to record-high levels of US$151.89 per share.
• For the third straight quarter, LinkedIn users have increased by 8 percent, bringing the current count to just over 200 million. 
• Although Facebook remains the largest social network with over 1 billion users, it relies mainly on revenue from advertising.  By contrast, LinkedIn depends on a healthy combination of advertising and subscription revenues from its premium products.
• BMO Capital Markets Corp. analyst Daniel Salmon recently advised investors:  “We believe LinkedIn is replacing job boards and other sources at the go-to source to find employees—something which should propel strong growth for the foreseeable future.”

 If you haven't become a registered LinkedIn user yet, now might be a good time to take the plunge and find out what all the fuss is about.  https://www.linkedin.com/reg/join

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/02/08/forget-facebook-linkedins-steady-growth-and-spectacular-returns-make-it-the-social-media-star/

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/02/08/linkedin-shares-soar-after-stellar-results

http://www.google.ca/finance?client=ob&q=NYSE:LNKD

http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/lnkd/real-time#.URj1rrZatMg

http://articles.marketwatch.com/2013-02-08/markets/36982278_1_premarket-trade-linkedin-forecast-first-quarter-sales

http://mashable.com/2013/02/07/linkedin-stock-jumps-10-after-q4-revenue-tops-300-million/

How can you help staff stay productive while they're performing monotonous jobs?

In interviews for one of my recent columns for PrintAction (“Inside University In-plants”, January 2013), Chris Panagopoulos, Manager, Printing and Mailing Services at York University, told me how he overcomes the challenges associated with helping the 40 to 60 student workers he hires every year stay productive while they perform monotonous tasks, including producing thousands of Cerlox-bound books of required readings for many of the university’s courses.

He explained:  “In hiring interviews, I ask the students if they are prepared to do the same repetitive job over and over, like working in an automobile factory, because that’s what the job requires.  To relieve the monotony, I let them listen to music while they work—but they are only allowed to use one earphone, so they can hear instructions and won’t hurt themselves.

“Sometimes we turn the task of inserting Cerlox coils by hand into a game to see how many they can do in a minute, or have competitions between teams to see who can produce more.  Since I adopted this playful approach, everyone wants to do hand coiling, rather than carry 20 to 30 pounds of printing around the campus on dollies.”

Mr. Panagopoulos added:  “One [student] who is now studying for his Masters degree worked with me during all four years of his undergraduate studies.  When they are ready to move on, they use me as a reference and coach to prepare them for job interviews.”  Presumably, by helping the students realize how their present employment is laying the foundation for their future professional or academic advancement, he also helps them stay motivated. 

You can read the entire story at:  https://www.box.com/s/ems8x9hnrrvjnmob0kag

Do you have any other tips for helping to encourage the best possible performance from staff who perform monotonous jobs?

On the thorny dilemma of LinkedIn Skill Endorsements

Lately I've been agonizing over the following scenario:  On the one hand, ever since LinkedIn introduced Skill Endorsements, I can’t help but feel fantastic whenever kind people exhibit their generosity by taking the time, trouble, and interest to endorse various aspects of my work. (Thank you, thank you, everyone.)  But here’s my dilemma: thus far I have declined to participate in endorsing others myself for fear of making it look as if I’m playing favourites. (American readers, please don’t be put off by my Canadian inclusion of the letter ‘u’ in the preceding word!)

Specifically, my reason for avoiding endorsements is that, as a business journalist, in most circumstances I consider it part of my responsibility and journalistic integrity to remain relatively objective for my readers in both my writing and my deportment. I also try hard to maintain enough diplomacy and positive regard for all my contacts to enable me to circulate freely within the industry and its supply chain to gather news and information as widely as possible, again for the sake of my readers.

Under these circumstances, how do you think I should handle the thorny question of LinkedIn Skills Endorsements? 

Am I doing the right thing?

Thank you for making me look good & Happy Holidays

Seasons Greetings and profuse thanks to all the printers, publishers, art directors, graphic designers, photographers, and talented others who laboured this year to make my copy look great in both printed and digital media.  You are my heroes.  Without you, I'd just be bald text. 

Notes from the day after I became a new woman thanks to LinkedIn

My experience:  LinkedIn seems to have converted my Profile in the early evening yesterday, and (at least to me) it still looks and works essentially the same, although less cluttered. 

My biggest, best surprise was that, in spite of LinkedIn’s advance warning that it would stop supporting Box.net Files, my Box documents still remained accessible from the Publications sections.  (I had also received a thoughtful but inadvertently anxiety-producing advance e-mail from The Box Team yesterday that walked me through new protocols for attaching my documents, even though it turned out I didn’t have to attempt them.)  I had been dreading the task of archiving all my publications all over again via a different, untried method—so yay!

How did everyone else survive the switch?

Today I'm a new woman thanks to LinkedIn

Late yesterday afternoon (3:55 p.m.), LinkedIn e-mailed me to say that today I'll be one of the privileged first to get a redesigned profile with "new ways to connect and build relationships" and "a new way to showcase rich content."  At the same time, they dropped the bomb that they're discontinuing apps that I've been using regularly, including Box.net Files and Blog Link.

As of 08:30 a.m. my local time, my LinkedIn Profile still looks the same as usual, so part of today's excitement will be wondering when they'll pull the switch.  Whenever it happens, please bear with me as I adapt to new protocols to stay in touch.  Like so many other new developments in social media, this one should prove interesting for all of us.  I'm for anything that will help me communicate better with other people.

Just in case you're curious, below is quoted LinkedIn's e-mail to me from yesterday.  At my end, I'd be curious to know if anyone else got the same message, or else a different one along the same lines:

Hi Victoria,

On December 11, 2012, you'll be getting the new LinkedIn profile, which has a simplified design, provides deeper insights, and surfaces new ways to connect and build relationships. You'll also be one of the first to preview a new way to showcase rich content on your profile -- like presentations, videos, documents, and more.

Now there are more ways than ever to tell your professional story on LinkedIn, and we're excited for you to try them out. As we roll out these changes, we'll also be streamlining our app offerings, so the following LinkedIn apps will no longer be supported on the homepage or profile as of December 11:

Box.net Files

Blog Link

You can find out more about these changes on our Help Center.We hope you like your new LinkedIn profile! Thanks, The LinkedIn Team