I’ve had it. Seriously. Every day, I log in to LinkedIn hoping to connect with people, write a blog in LinkedIn Pulse or see if some of the thought leaders I’m following have anything useful to say.
I log in expecting to see people adding value to the community, interacting professionally and ultimately having a great experience.
Oh, but a man can dream.
Instead, I see people taking on the same old behavior and reaping the same old results.
In this article, I want to bring up a couple of things that you need to stop doing on LinkedIn, for the sake of my mental health and everyone who is connected to you on the platform.
1. Please don’t InMail me if you’re just pitching
Few things aggravate me as much as people who are in the spray-and-pray mindset on LinkedIn. I receive between three and five messages on LinkedIn weekly, mostly from people I don’t know, who are asking me to buy something I don’t need.
There’s nothing wrong with connecting with someone you’ve actually met and have pertinent questions for. So use InMail when appropriate.
2. Stop endorsing me for skills I don’t have
Getting an endorsement on LinkedIn is like winning a participation medal — nobody cares.
I get notifications when I get endorsed. I’m not sure what these things are for, as people seem to be handing them out with no regard for accuracy. I get people are trying to be nice, but in reality, the efforts won’t yield anything for the person doing the endorsing.
[Tweet “‘Getting a LinkedIn endorsement is like winning a participation medal.’ @cavejordans”]
Instead, if you want to see real interactions and engagement spike on your LinkedIn profile, write a recommendation for someone you’ve worked with. Do this weekly for different people. These are valuable, but nobody does this. Why? Because they take five minutes of work and people are undoubtedly lazy on LinkedIn.
3. Please, don’t engage in any math problems or puzzles
OK, I have two major beefs with these math problems that often circulate LinkedIn:
- If you get it wrong, you’re broadcasting your inability to do the rudimentary math.
- If you post any answer, you’re broadcasting that you have too much time on your hands.
Stay away from these puzzles, they are distracting you and everyone else from getting stuff done.
4. Stop sharing virtual tours
I, along with the rest of the professional community, do not want to watch a video that has production value from the late ’90s.
[Tweet “I do not want to watch a video that has production value from the late ’90s. – @cavejordans”]
Instead of posting a virtual tour, shoot a video of the listing from your phone. Your iPhone has more editing power and flexibility than automated virtual tours.
Below is a video that showed up on my LinkedIn feed from Toronto Realtor Patrick Gillis. He does two things in this video:
- He shows the listing
- He shows his personality
This is a great example of how to market a listing and yourself at the same time.
Eliminating these common pitfalls on LinkedIn from your marketing strategy and embracing some of the alternative techniques proposed here will provide better results for you, period.
If you have any further questions on this, let’s connect on LinkedIn.
Jordan Scheltgen is the founder of Cave Social. You can follow him on Twitter @cavejordans or connect with him on Facebook.
