Don’t Blame the Connection; The Fault Lies in the Feed
Do you ever look at your LinkedIn status reports and see “updates” coming in from the same connection 5, 6, even 10 times in a row? And each status “update” is about their book, their event, their website — in short, about them?
And you want to blast back at them. Hey! Quiet down already. It’s not all about you! It’s about Me, too!
And you know you’re right because it IS about you. Supposedly. Partly. If a LinkedIn connection is appearing on your “Network Updates”, you accepted them into your world to connect, maybe even invited them. You probably didn’t say in your email, “Please spam me with every marketing zap you can think of all day, every day.”
But please don’t be too hard on the overwrought updaters.
Usually, The Annoyance is Due to a Twitter-to-LinkedIn Feed
A powerful Twitter strategy uses lots of quick blasts, zapped out over a short period of time. On Twitter, the feeds speed by, ever-faster as you increase the number you follow, so you need repetition. The strategy works on Twitter; in fact, it’s fun.
But when your connection shoots a feed of those same short blasts onto LinkedIn, it quickly begins to smell like spam.
LinkedIn Strategy – Where the Roads Diverge
LinkedIn strategy is a virtual reflection of real-life networking. In Real Life, you walk into a Chamber of Commerce meeting, you exchange business cards, introduce each other, chat and connect. You’re not networking AT people; you’re networking WITH them. Same’s true for LinkedIn.
And that is why when it comes to feeds, I usually advise clients to feed FROM LinkedIn TO Twitter and/or Facebook and FROM Facebook TO Twitter, but if going FROM Twitter TO LinkedIn and even Facebook, to use a controllable feed (those hashtags) and send some, not all tweets.
Bottom Line: Please don’t tweet me on LinkedIn and Facebook. I’ll begin to think you don’t want to connect, that it’s all about you. And I insist on thinking that my incoming has to be at least somewhat about me, too.
