Thanks for the congratulatory email LinkedIn but so what?

I received an email from LinkedIn on 7 February which congratulated me for having one of the top one percent most viewed LinkedIn profiles in 2012. After my initial excitement waned and I got to hear from a whole bunch of other people that they also received the same email, I started thinking about how important the message LinkedIn sent me really was.

Most people create a profile on LinkedIn for a specific reason and these generally revolve around getting employed, meeting new business partners and identifying new business opportunities for themselves or for the organisation they represent. Depending on an individual’s area of expertise or the products, services and solutions provided by the organisation that employs them, they are generally interested in connecting with companies in particular industries and relevant stakeholders within the organisation.

Based on the services, solutions, products and individual expertise provided by the organisation I represent, this is the message I would have loved to receive from LinkedIn.

David, congratulations! You have one of the top 1% most viewed LinkedIn profiles for 2012. Since LinkedIn has 200-million members globally, you are one of 2 million members attempting to get noticed, so to make it more useful to you, we have provided additional information that may add value to you.

Who viewed your profile?

Of the 3 500 people who viewed your profile in 2012, we have provided a breakdown by country, industry, job title and company name and what was viewed on your profile.

Who liked and shared your updates?

In addition, we have provided a list of all the persons who “liked” your content and shared your content with their connections, broken down by country, industry and job title.

If my focus is on content marketing this will help me tremendously to determine what subject matter we are producing is being viewed and by whom. This is also a great way to open doors at organisations and get the first meeting

Who commented on your LinkedIn group discussions?

We also know how important it is for you to know what interaction took place on the LinkedIn groups you manage, so we have sent you a breakdown who commented on discussions you started on your LinkedIn groups, broken down by country, industry and job title.

This will help me ascertain what discussions my members are interested in so I can plan on doing more in the future.

Who would you like to connect with?

We reviewed your connections, and based on the industry, job titles and country of the persons you are currently connected with, we have sent you a list of persons who you may be interested in connecting with.

This will help me connect with more of the right people within organisations who may be potentially interested in the content I am putting out there and the relevant solutions and services my organisation provides.

Conclusion

LinkedIn has all the information we need so why not share something meaningful with its members? I would quite happily pay for this kind of information because it shortens our sales cycle and we are able to contact a potential prospect knowing that they may be interested in specific subject matter.

LinkedIn has been focussed on providing a great service to recruiters for some time now and I believe they still weigh their loyalties in the favour of the recruiting companies. They should get some advice from some of the content marketing specialists out there and gear themselves to provide, what I believe can be an exceptional, value-adding service to B2B marketers.

Sending an arbitrary message telling me that my profile is one of 2-million others that has been viewed does not help me position my company’s thoughtware and people better. If I was looking for a job, I may get a little more excited but not much, because I have no idea who was looking at my profile, their industry, their company, their job title or their name.

LinkedIn, you developed your social network for professionals to connect and interact in a professional way, so please do not resort to cheap and nasty unprofessional communication in future. If you want to monetise your platform further, there are a load of value-adding services and information that you can provide that marketers and sales people would love to get their hands on.