On Monday morning this week I saw that one of my connections on LinkedIn had shared a sexist image in his feed with a message on it saying: 'A stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet'.
I thought that his account had been hacked and someone else had shared the image without him knowing. I went to his page, clicked on 'View recent activity' and I scrolled down and saw that he had a few similar updates in his feed. So, I'm pretty sure it was him sharing the image. I was tempted to comment, and I started to write that I thought it was unprofessional to share this kind of content on LinkedIn and that he is destroying his personal brand, but instead I shared my thoughts in my own status.
Here is what I wrote: 'If you want to display an unprofessional profile on LinkedIn share sexist images with your network. Just saw one of these in my feed. Will disconnect!'
What gives the story extra edge is that this man is a headhunter. Who would want to be hunted down by him? I then removed him from my LinkedIn network.
There are over 300 million people using LinkedIn, it's an amazing way to stay connected and build a global network.
Behaving well online and presenting yourself as a decent human being with good values and ideas isn't that hard. But still I see quite a few people using the network in a way that just makes you want to disconnect from them.
To sustain a strong online profile you need to have an idea about dos and don'ts. LinkedIn is a community, and as anywhere you need to show respect to your fellow community members.
Here are some examples of LinkedIn personas you shouldn't copy:
1) The over-sharer
Oversharing irrelevant content that would fit better on Facebook or Twitter is a great way to disengage your network. Your connections want to see things that are relevant to their professional careers.
2) The random messenger
The random messenger sends their network odd messages without context. Many people will appreciate a message every now and then from their connections about what they are up to. But messages without any story or context will only annoy the reader.
3) The sales desperado
Hundreds of sales pitches are sent over LinkedIn every day, often from people you have only been connected with for a day. You will be seen as a creepy creep if you do this.
4) The blogger of drivel
Posting badly written blog posts on LinkedIn almost every day is a great way to be unfollowed and disengage your community. Phew! All of your connections will get a notification when you add a new blog post, some will look at it and if it's badly written they will never look again. Make an effort with every blog post if you want people to share and like your posts.
5) The over-liker
If you like everything you see in your feed the rest of your network will in their turn see that in their feed. You are decluttering your connections feed.
6) The exaggerator
To lie about yourself and your achievements make you like a con artist. Share your own personal story and who you are. People love to be connected people who are honest.
7) The passive account holder
The opposite of over-sharing is doing nothing. If you never do any maintenance on your LinkedIn profile it won't do much good for you. It needs some love and care every now and then to be found and featured.
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Thank you! Sofie
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