Turn On, Link In, Drop Out

The invitations have been flowing fast and furious lately: “I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” At first, it seemed like the thing to do and I indulged in what I will call LinkedIn promiscuity, accepting all invitations. There was also the phenomenon of LinkedIn Envy when I saw acquaintances with more than 500 connections and a plethora of recommendations.

But it wasn’t long before I started wondering, “Just what am I getting out of this?”

And I can’t answer that. OK, so I have completed 75 percent of my profile and I have one recommendation. Now what? I guess I have been somewhat suspicious of LinkedIn since I turned up on my wife’s page as “Someone you may know.”

My page shows my profile has been viewed by two people in the last 27 days and I have appeared in search results 10 times. Three readers of Consulting Insights (my email newsletter) have just joined as have 28 readers of Accounting Technology and 11 classmates from Indiana University (which has more than 30,000 people on the main campus.

So?

I haven’t discovered long lost friends looking for me. The crew I associated with was not likely to sign up for anything as establishment oriented as this. People I haven’t heard from in a long time have asked to link with me and then haven’t returned emails after I accepted. I am not looking for connections for job hunting—which I could do without having my own profile.

And most of the invitations come from people whose telephone numbers and email addresses I already have.

I am busy doing my job (like writing this column), along with my newsletter and magazine. I am keeping five blogs going on Blogger and if you want to learn about my extracurricular activities on Linked n, you can visit my home page.

And LinkedIn says it well in a box on the opening page: “Build your network. (Why?)”

Why, indeed?, I guess I’ve become a LinkedIn DropOut.