Having been asked to review many LinkedIn profiles for people this week, it surprises me how many seem to either be so impersonal or have so much missing. Yet, these people have been told or advised what to do when putting their profile together!
I guess people can have different ideas on how a profile should look but would you do the same when doing your CV,applying for a new position and completing your application form?
LinkedIn is a professional site which gives you the opportunity to market yourself and your business, so image is everything and should be treated like I mentioned above – as a job interview. Thus make sure that you have a photo that reflects you and or your company – what would your impression be if you saw someone half-naked or in a football shirt? Would you take them seriously? So, why should they take you seriously? Obviously, there are some exceptions to this point, such as if you are a personal trainer or sports company.
When you set up your profile, you are asked all these questions about yourself and what does mean? It is because they are asking you to set up your Personal Profile – not a company one! So would you use a personal profile for business? In a way is this not false reporting? Is it fraud? You make think this is extreme to say, but if you employed someone who broke the rules or you had a client who did the opposite to what you stated, would you do business with them? I am presuming and hoping the answer is no.
So, when you sign up to use Social Media services such as Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest and LinkedIn, they ask and offer help as to how you set up your account – personal or business. So if you set up a personal account and then change it to be a business, this is breaking the terms and conditions of their platform which you agreed to when signing up for the platform.
For a moment, think about what you have done……
You have created this false profile, established yourself and your business by creating this audience with people, prospective clients and clients and then BOOM! The platform finds out and closes your account down. You have lost that credibility and all that information you had on there. Once this is done, there is little you can do to change this as the platform providers will point out that you were using a personal profile for business which is in breach of their terms and conditions, so when the platform closes your profile down due to this, you have lost so much. What are you going to tell everyone when you have to start all over again and ask for their contact details? Or they are chasing you for an order or request they sent to you before the profile was closed down?
OK, I know it is Friday and the weekend is ahead of us, but final gripe of the day (and I know I have mentioned it before) but why oh why, have anonymous profile on here or choose to set it so people can’t see you viewed their profile? LinkedIn has developed this platform for us to promote both ourselves and our companies, interact and connect with people, look for companies to work with, the list goes on and on and that is without mentioning the Groups on here too. So, if you are going to use LinkedIn like it was designed for, then why hide? If you feel this way, then is LinkedIn for you?
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