Monday, February 8, 2010
How to Kill Your Career on LinkedIn
I've been quiet on this blog because I've been writing stuff on other blogs. Plus I've been pretty busy the past couple of months. But don't worry I'm trying get back into my writing groove. If you haven't read my post on the 7 Deadly Sins of a LinkedIn Profile you should check it out.
I asked my network on LinkedIn about what they find the most annoying about LinkedIn; everyone said spam. Spam in the form of groups, spam in the form of people who are adding you without knowing you. The worst kind of spam? Asking for recommendations without knowing the person. This was so basic that my network didn't bring it up in the Q&A. There's nothing much to explain here. If person A hasn't worked with person B or even know that person, how will he or she give a recommendation?
Well, one person just did that, and asked the wrong person. He received quite the recommendation -- but poor fellow probably couldn't read properly or thought that he has to post every recommendation that came his way. So, he posted that recommendation even when it said that he was an asshole. This is just stupidity in the highest possible degree. I was an eye witness from the start to finish. We thought he'd just send an apology or ignore the fake recommendation but he didn't, he went ahead and posted it! I've seen mistakes by companies, people, and even I've made bad decisions on social networks but this is by far the most surprisingly dumb thing I have seen. Click here to read about the whole story.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmarks/ / CC BY 2.0
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Online Reputation Management Service RapLeaf Changes Features
When I checked my email this morning, I got an email from RapLeaf saying that they're phasing out one of their features on the 17th "due to low demand". They gave me an option to opt-out.
RapLeaf started out as a personal online reputation management tool and evolved into a service that gets information about people on the web for businesses and consumers. I signed on it reluctantly in June, 2008 because I didn't really have a choice -- they had my information up already without my permission. After I "claimed" my profile, I forgot about them until today. My first impression was that they were a bogus company since they just copied my information on LinkedIn.
I don't really like seeing my info up without my permission. These days it's pretty easy for a company to get or make a program that traverses the Internet and use it in their own service.
By December, 2008 RapLeaf changed their policy but my initial opinion of them remained, even though they had great press. Maybe a lot of folks who heard about them came through them the same way, maybe this is the cause of their low demand. It can also be that a lot of people are satisfied with having just a LinkedIn profile. Having a lot of profiles can be taxing on time and energy. If the user doesn't find a need to use the service, most likely they won't bother using it or even put up a profile on it.
New web services need to start thinking about harnessing people's profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and provide additional tools. It is crucial that the user understands a need or else it'll just be another clone site. Which tools do you use to manage your online identity, profiles, and reputation? Why do you stick with them?
Thursday, July 23, 2009
What Customer Care 2.0 Should Be
I have a bad habit of typing whatever there is on my head on Twitter. I'm not as 'chatty' in real life as I am online. If you know me, you know that I'm actually a quiet person. I don't talk much. I spoke very late in life, so late that my mother thought I was a mute kid. This week I've been rambling off about my wishes on Disqus, and a new TV commercial of Sula Wines. I actually said something bad about Sula Wines. I thought no one was listening. @sulawines immediately replied and said that I should try their premium wines. If they didn't call me on it I wouldn't know that they had premium wines. I'm willing to try it out now even though I haven't liked their older wines. Some of my expat friends drink Sula. I just haven't developed a taste for it but their new line might make me change my mind.
As for Disqus, there was something wrong with the connection and a comment got posted twice. I wanted to delete it. It was more of a wish to be able to delete your own comment than a complaint. It was cool that @disqus got back to me immediately. I'm so used to complaining about Airtel or electricity that I didn't expect reaction from the Twitterverse. They were both nice pleasant surprises. Now I just wish more companies, especially from India are on Twitter and are listening. It can boost their brands to another level and gain not just customers but brand ambassadors as well.
Airtel are you listening? Stay tuned for my next post on my Airtel nightmare experience.
Graphic by: Ben Sheldon
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Twitter Combats ID-squatting but is it enough?
Any of us who use Twitter on a daily basis who get bogus followers and femmebots know what a pain in the butt fake profiles can be. On June 6th, Twitter announced on their blog about the Twitter verification process. It seems they've been moving through the celebrity tweeple for now because I saw it as I was checking out @wilw's twitter profile. (If you don't know who Wil Wheaton is, he's the actor who played the doctor's kid, who became an ensign on Star Trek Next Generation series.) I checked some other personalities like @WilliamShatner and his account was verified, too. I think they're moving through the twitter elite first before the program it's available to us mortals. If it's ever available.
With hacks, security lapses, and impersonations galore, folks will want to be verified. For people who work and live online, our identities are priceless. We take years building up profiles. Our accounts, data, and networks are very important to us. Brands or even fake personalities like Bruno wouldn't be able to market and pull off campaigns if there were others hijacking or using the names. ID-squatting can not just damage reputations but can lead to financial losses.
I use OpenID via ClaimID but it takes a while for an average user to figure out the system. Steve Rubel calls it "geeky". Right now, there's no real unifying process across all social networks unless it's passing info to that specific social network. New apps pop up every day and new sites come online. The average Joes and Janes are moving onto social networks to interact with friends and family. They're not going to think twice about protecting themselves online.
Privacy is an after thought, no one really looks for that little button that limits views of your profile. Case in point: Facebook and MI6: MI6 chief's wife posted family photos and details of their home. For ordinary people, that's a simple fun thing to do online. Everyone does it. But for an MI6 chief, it can be life threatening. Same thing goes for diplomats. And diplomats' wives do blog, if you know where to look or who to look for.
Social networks are moving so fast and becoming popular that governments, and companies can hardly keep up. There are no manuals on how to protect your online identity or even awareness campaigns on why we need to protect our IDs. We're also not developing tools fast enough to combat this problem. Once a system is in place, there will be less femmebots, fake profiles, and spammers. Just like ISPs and email marketers have come up with strong systems to block and punish those who abuse the system, there has to be a way to control it in the social media arena.
There has to be a balance, to let people have fun while protecting their privacy. What are your thoughts?
