Connecting on other Social Networks; LinkedIn
7Yesterday in the CEO-fuzzy-vision brainstorming thread for things our community might do collectively, @connorbush suggested a jobs board for posting jobs and then (as a followup shortcut) a Meh group on LinkedIn. I’d like to explore that here because it may be a quick action item.
First let me acknowledge there are many folks who dislike LinkedIn. It’s a personal decision of whether the value you get justifies the cost or nuisance of their monetization. I can’t solve for that.
What I can solve for is creating weird business models where we don’t fear our community gathering elsewhere, even if it’s out of our control. Most of the value creation we’re responsible for is complex and counter-intuitive enough that Amazon really didn’t care to figure it out. We (Mediocre) seek to have transparency and build an honest, open community while efficiently clearing inventory or making items. We should be taking advantage of our stance by gathering in ways that other commercial entities can’t. Maybe that sentiment helps you over the hump in participating or maybe not.
So on to LinkedIn group needs - I’m on LinkedIn but I don’t use it much. Does anyone here have experience creating and managing groups there? How onerous is maintaining a group there - are there tools for election of admins and delegation of tasks? Are there job boards than can be maintained? Are there fees that an organization can pay to help things run better?
Could we build a group there with value proposition worth emailing out to other Mediocre or Meh members to join?
- 18 comments, 40 replies
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Woohoo. I made it to the big times mom! They said I’d never do anything with my life, well look at me now!!
Okay all kidding aside, I am in a couple of group’s but haven’t run any. I know that I do get regular news type email updates from one of my two groups. I also get emails, albiet less frequently, from the other group. The groups can be made private and certain credentials must be met to join. I’m not certain of much beyond that but I’ll be glad to look into it.
Forgive any typing errors-- this is via cellular phone.
I’m not an employee but these threads make me feel like I’m sitting in a board meeting. You got some interesting prose there @snapster.
@jbartus used it to get his dog a job.
@sammydog01 sadly not, he’s still underfoot and begging for handouts.
@jbartus …and keeping you from getting murdered.
@katylava there are no axe murderers in my neighborhood, you’re just feeding his ego!
I really don’t see a lot of value in LinkedIn for the meh community. It is a method of staying in touch with former coworkers vaguely. It is good for job hunts. It is however a bit like a soapbox where people brodcast professional items and jobs but no conversation. However, as part of meh community is in pseudonyms and this gives us the freedom to joke around and have not perfectly proffesional conversation. Meh is us being a bit silly. I wouldn’t want to tie my proffesional life to the fact that I like silly troll videos. Linked in group might be good for those meh employees and former meh employees but I wouldn’t want to hire someone that was in a meh group if they were not in procurement or sales.
@CaptAmehrican Also people would know who I was in real life.
/giphy no stalking
@medz The thing is… we already know who you are!
@CaptAmehrican i agree, meh.me and linkedin.me are not to be connected because, silly
@CaptAmehrican yes - job board. Maybe this sounds more inclusive than that somehow. LinkedIn isn’t exactly a fun party.
@snapster If anybody is afraid of losing anonymity, we could use our Monkey I.D.s. Corollary: good use of the Monkey I.D.
(crossing fingers hoping for “Marilyn Manson”)
@snapster
The job board part I’d be interested in - I need one. Again. Just got temporarily laid off a week ago… However even remotely connecting my identity connected with meh with my one in the real world - especially my professional one - that I am not so sure about. I try to be very careful what I have on social media that is actually linked to who I really am. I would interact very differently if I knew a future employer might be able to connect the two.
Here I don’t have to be all that careful. And I do occasionally contribute to the fuck count with some jpegs/giphy’s, some of which are one the edge for safe at work, etc. That presents a real risk in a job search for a professional job (and with some employers then keeping said job). I can’t take that risk.
@PocketBrain but then we’d need a second linkedin account. That would be a pain.
@Kidsandliz connecting your LinkedIn account with your Meh account seems silly. A group with a few hundred members effectively anonymizes the individual associations. You’d basically stand on your LinkedIn profile strength only.
@Kidsandliz Oh wait, we should use our real identities on linkedin, and something else here?
/giphy I’m doing it wrong
@sligett
/giphy very very confused
@snapster You make a good point, but even not deliberately connecting them (although some people on both forums might make the connections depending on what someone said) could create some issues if the linkedin group and meh have an obvious connection. If a third party (especially one that is intolerant of profanity, off color humor, etc.) , who controls hiring, firing… sees what goes on on this forum because of who sponsors that forum then a person on the linkedin group might be “damned” by association. There are some threads here that resemble soft porn, just for example (of course there are others that show the humor, compassion, helpfulness of forum members), that are not “safe” for work and some might find offensive. As I said in another comment, I could well be overly cautious…
@Kidsandliz the older I get the more consolidated I want people’s perspectives of me to be. I try not to do things that would affect me negatively to people I care about but more often I find the reverse is the cleaner solution: I try not to care about people who perceive what I do negatively. Easy for me to say since I’ve been self employed for most of my life.
It’s all subjective as well. It’s easy to agree that some fields of work simply wouldn’t match to showing a sense of humor on your LinkedIn profile. No one wants to risk hiring a Mediocre Doctor.
is the membership badge a forced element of a LinkedIn group? Surely you can be associated and not display your association?
@snapster I don’t really use linkedin other than I created a minimalist profile for other reasons (eg to join a specific group) so likely someone else would be better answering that. It has a list of groups you belong to that are visible and I don’t recall a way of opting out but then again I haven’t researched that. I didn’t associate that with calling it a badge though… but maybe that is what they are called? I am not the best one to answer questions about the finer points of linked in.
@snapster with respect to your mediocre doctor comment… I have a facebook “like” of an oncologist who created a group where he posts useful links for the kind of incurable cancer I have (of course I also have a fake facebook profile just for that kind of stuff to keep the multiple cancer dx’s out of my “real” feed, although I almost never post to facebook, use it mostly to keep up with family). He used to work where I go for cancer treatment. Through my facebook feed they suggested my oncologist as a “friend”. Out of curiosity I followed the link. His profile photo showed him naked in bed (sheet just barely covering pubic hair) with a drink raised in the air… I must admit that was too much information and I was, on one level, grossed out LOL
What would be the real advantage of holding a group there compared to holding it here?
@ELUNO advantage would only be in actually using LinkedIn. Job boards / job searching mainly.
I use LinkedIn to network and brainstorm with other professionals in my line of work. My groups are very conversational, the groups are really only as good as the members are participatory. That being said, many of the general postings for jobs seem to get blasted all over regardless of how relevant they are to a given demographic. I cannot tell you how many get dumped in my weekly summary email that do not align with what my skills are…so I just skim over them, no big deal.
No No here is here, linkedin is work related and it’s easy enough to shoot myself in the foot as it is.
I use LinkedIn to see which co-workers or clients are looking to jump ship, as they suddenly update their resumes and/or making curious connections on their previously dormant accounts. And for those who did jump ship, I like to see how long they last before their next gig. There seems to be a pattern.
The picture that is attached to this discussion is AMAZING!!!
@conandlibrarian Odds are she might not have a LinkedIn profile.
@snapster I really like the idea, but I would honeslty work for you for free if it meant I could occasionally fly to Texas and join in on the fun.
I am on some professional linked in groups. I find some other formats more user friendly for group discussions (and less grandstanding as I guess some people post with growing their network in mind) however I due have email notifications turned on and sometimes go look at what I am missing, have posted on occasion to some discussions (or answered questions privately)…
This issue I see with posting jobs is that the skill set of those of us on the meh board is really broad. It seems to me the jobs that would show up there would be pretty random with respect to being useful for any given individual.
If you are looking at people connecting in “real life” and using those connections to then find a job, well certainly we’d be scattered across a ton of industries and companies and so there’d be a lot of “weak links” in that respect which would be useful.
I run a number of yahoo groups and the workload varies depending on the behavior of the individuals but I certainly don’t think it would be that much of a hassle to run something like that. I have 6800+ on one list I run.
I’d hesitate to be connected professionally with a linkedin group where there was a lot of profanity, R rated comments/jokes/innuendo… I think one issue is that we have a joking around, sarcastic humor, mildly (usually) raunchy culture here. Hard to have two different cultures for one community that changes depending on the setting. The one here will not, in my opinion, transfer well to a professional setting. I am not sure you’d be able to transform the culture here to something more “appropriate” there without affecting (potentially) the one here. I’d worry that people would join there who weren’t on here, and so would get offended and then negatively judge us - thus potentially risking losing being considered for a job… But then again I am really cautious when it comes to stuff like this (on the other hand research backs up some of what I am saying).
On the other hand a group there likely would be another way to drive people over to here and that bunch would likely have more money than some of us on here… Was that part of what you were thinking about/hoping might happen? A novel way/new pipeline to acquire customers without really advertising?
@Kidsandliz I hadn’t considered driving visibility for Meh over there much of a gain. In fact I think the association might be better made at the Mediocre level, which distances any benefit. In fact this now seems really quite funny to me now. I’d love to have a Mediocre club badge to show my snarky thoughts about the low value of LinkedIn badges.
@snapster
I’m still not clear what we would supposedly be doing on LinkedIn, other than conceptual mayhem. Well I hope it’s conceptual mayhem.
Your value-added (or not value-added, whatever) intro left me confused. Business models, perhaps w metrics? Monetarization? Collectively?
What we might need as a project or playground is something fun and perhaps useful that has an effective asshole-and-troll barrier. We also need be mindful, perhaps, of some of the laws of communities, esp to do with intimacy and privacy and personal/professional boundaries and size.
“Value propositions”? Uhhh … I wanna go with Homer on that and say “donuts”. At least until the phrase becomes more intelligible. I know, for staffers, it’s a corp environment, even if it’s an octopi-cinnamon-walnut corp environment. Perhaps MBA Ick-Speak must reign. Must it?
Poor brain. Perhaps, Captain, the engines, tha’ canno’ take any more; at this hour. after so many drafts and lineup changes. For which I must, with infinite sorrow, blame @oldcatlady, who hast goated me.
But! Still! Ya know, the language of common fiction and conversation and street-speak has its charms, and also its fluencies. And still, outside of tech, expresses best the possibilities and poetics. And can still boldly go … Out There.
Personally, as a project, kinda like manic punning, not that I know how. So I get to watch and cheer. Puns: Sure path to world peace and love.
Ok. 6pm and the night is not young, at the morning is winking at me sadistically. I bet I made absolutely no sense at all. My family would be so proud.
So. Someone tell me once more: uh, what are we talking about here?
Value-added what?
@f00l
Note and Addendum: the blame assigned to @OldCatyLady in the post above, regarding drafts and lineup changes, refers to the context of my Fantasy Football teams, not to drafts and revisions of unintelligible posts. Those posts are nonsense from conception to “Say It”. Nonsense and Proud Of It.
For my accomplishments, I take credit. For my Fantasy Football results, I fear @OldCatLady will suffer grievously.
@snapster Linked in has badges (I don’t use it much)? Now that is humorous.
@f00l Umm your dissertation in that comment perhaps is suffering a bit from consumption of “substances”? Only some of that makes sense to me. LOL… of course I was not sure exactly what Snapster had in mind either. I thought he was throwing a baby arm into the pond and wanted to see what surfaced when he did that. You know, in case someone had a good idea, said something that helped him focus his thinking, gave him a tangent bridge where he might then get somewhere interesting… I vaguely recall a conversation he initiated a while back about self-destructing emails and how that might be used…where apparently nothing surfaced that was useful like having meh’s morning spam disappear out of our in boxes if we don’t open it by a certain time or something (yeah I know we can unsub, just being snarky here) LOL
@Kidsandliz
I suffered and still suffer from zero sleep last night for whatever reason. 6am. Can’t sleep. Not gonna sleep. Filters down.
Meta-comment on thought, language, community, connectivity intended. With 6am punchy goodness.
Ha ha ha
/giphy FAIL
I agree with many that have already shared their opinions . Although I fully embrace the idea of professionally networking and working to help others advance their careers (and hopefully they return the favor), I also see the risk involved with allowing the general public to form a first impression based upon a board I enjoy.
I would challange that we could set up a seperate thread here to provide job opportunities OR if the intent is truly altruistic, a weekly newsletter showing various job openings that is sent to those who subscribe. We do something similar here in STL that is highly effective - it has literally helped thousands of people find new jobs (or employees)
Just my two cents
@tinamarie1974
If we put jobs here, it might open us to people here for diff reasons. And many would cruise on by, and leave, or be jerks then leave; a few might stay; a few might linger who … uhh … needed counseling. I hate to see these forums become overtly career-useful. Some things are best kept small and close to their original values; or allowed to grow slowly.
If we were thinking of actual job-seeking on LinkedIn (serious professional life seems so remote from here), well, tech jobs, prof jobs, uber drivers, whatever, about everyone I know found careers/jobs thru personal IRL connections. People they could call on the phone Do we converge to the degree to offer relevant opportunities to each other? Seems - well - hmmmm.
Basic question from a comment above: Can we create a LinkedIn public group for “Mediocre” that has an optional badge that can be displayed on your profile? I.e can membership be non-public facing?
@connorbush do you happen to know answer here?
@snapster Changing the Visibility of a Group on Your Profile
All Standard Group logos are displayed on your Profile. For Unlisted Groups, the logo will only be displayed to fellow group members.
You can also edit your public profile to prevent any of your groups from showing on your public profile.
Check or uncheck the box next to Groups under the Additional Information section on the right side of the page.
Last updated: 10 months ago
@snapster https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/197/changing-the-visibility-of-a-group-on-your-profile?lang=en
Please let me know if this is sufficient. I have yet to intake coffee.
@connorbush bingo yes this is exactly what I’d hoped. So it would seem this resolves anyone’s concerns about optics while still giving whatever utility the group provides.
@snapster Yay! I have not heard the term utility since I was working on my econ BA. Good times, mmmm good times. Glad I could be of service.
@connorbush
Well now I get to try remember my login over there. Ugh.
@snapster yup, that fixes the issue!
I don’t maintain my LinkedIn profile. I’ve had the same job for 12 years now, so my employment predates mainstream usage of that site. Truth is that I’ve got a pretty good job now. I like what I do. I like who I work with. I’m paid fairly, if not generously. But, I wouldn’t mind a kick in the ass to get it updated. As good as my job is, market forces could always shift in a way that’s unfavorable and being prepared isn’t bad.
TL;DR - The value prop in a Meh group would be inspiration for continuing job market/career preparedness.
Can we all just take a brief moment to appreciate the “meth 4 kids” section of the image header on this thread?!
@connorbush I’m pretty sure we’re going to see this profile if we have a linkedin group. @conandlibrarian probably already has it created and ready to submit
Now live: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7066698
That’s about as mediocre as I could make it. I was going to check with @shawn about pre-approving folks with mediocre accounts (it has some features for that) but I’m not sure there’s enough purpose in doing so. Anyways - this was a quick action but maybe it doesn’t have a ton of payoff. You’re welcome to ignore or join.
But I’d probably want to actually put something in my profile before joining… Not that I haven’t been meaning to… Damn inertia.
@snapster Joined! And I love the idea of having “mediocre” somehow attached to my linkedin profile.
@snapster I still have no idea what’s going on but fuck it.
Cheers, I am in. If even one person gets any kind of benefit from this… I’d say success in terms of effort to benefit ratio.
@snapster request sent!!
This thread got me thinking of a linkedin feature idea: Business office locations are public info. Linkedin should be able to look at my job, look at the jobs of people in my network, and suggest a list of people who work close enough to have lunch with.
I have a Linkedin account, but don’t know how to fully utilize it. I need something new since I moved two years ago. I’m looking to start continuing my college education next year (with a campus opening next year merely a few miles away).Hmm, maybe being a mediocre member is just what I need to kick me in the right direction.
Request sent.