Seven Wishes for the LinkedIn Community in the New Decade

So if you want LinkedIn to fulfill more of its original goal, what can you do in this coming year—and decade? I think that if each of the key constituents in the LinkedIn Community were to take the seven actions listed below, my wishes for LinkedIn would come closer to reality.

If you are Any member of the LinkedIn Community:

• Enhance your Profile and share something truly interesting. Within the last year, the Profile Summary section changed to “About.” So now is the perfect time to relay a memorable anecdote about your work style or how an earlier, seemingly different job helps you in your current role.
• Share your news through a Post, a non-intrusive way of staying in touch. If you are like me, you don’t send a personal e-newsletter, but would love to stay in touch at some level with hundreds of people who are LinkedIn Connections. What better way than a short update about an interesting conference or meeting that you are attending? When I spot an update from someone whom I haven’t seen before on LinkedIn, I am pleased and try to encourage my colleague with a Like, Comment or Share.

If you are An Active User:

• Become a more conscientious supporter of your fellow LinkedIn members and valued Connections. This coming year, I am going to proactively research and offer one new Introduction to a LinkedIn Connection each week.
• Select a single LinkedIn Group that interests you and contribute meaningfully and consistently. Groups can once again be a great way for professionals to meet and establish relationships that move beyond LinkedIn.

If you are LinkedIn (The Company): Please refocus on your original and core mission of helping business people network, so aptly described by Reid over 10 years ago. More specifically, you have previously offered critical features that today are only available through Sales Navigator or not at all. Two of these are to categorize Connections and to set reminders to follow up with Connections about business opportunities. LinkedIn had briefly introduced a $20/month premium membership some years ago and offering these features at a small fee might be a money-making opportunity for you.

If you are A Reporter: Stories critical of Facebook are common; perhaps you could take a break and do some human interest stories on how LinkedIn has helped entrepreneurs become successful. We are a community of close to 100 million active users, many of whom have interesting stories to tell.

If you are Members Who Post Too Frequently: PLEASE STOP!

We all know Connections who are dominating our LinkedIn homepage feed. They communicate the same message 10 different times, when two or three posts would do. They take our homepage feed away from its purpose—information about our network—into the realm of self-promotion. The rest of us then spend precious time managing our homepage feeds in order to avoid the self-promoters.

What is on your wish list for LinkedIn in 2020?

Bruce K. Segall is an experienced Marketing professional with 25 years’ experience in large financial services companies and smaller firms before becoming President of Marketing Sense in 2010. Marketing Sense helps professionals craft and promote their brand so that they stand out in today’s crowded online world. Bruce has recently trained over 125 clients and dozens of professional groups on LinkedIn, including many attorneys at small to mid-sized firms. He writes frequently on LinkedIn—see https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/brucesegall  Bruce has a BA from Yale, an MBA from Stanford Business School, and lives in Dobbs Ferry, NY.