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The Best Social Media Advice I Learned in Kindergarten

Authors: Jay Baer Jay Baer
Posted Under: Social Media
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The Baer Facts Social Media Controversies
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In this edition of The Baer Facts, I talk with Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget about LinkedIn’s recent marketing program whereby they sent emails to members announcing their profiles were in the top 10%, 5%, or 1% of all profiles viewed. (excellent coverage about it from LinkedIn consultant Andy Foote)

As Andy and others pointed out, being in the top 1% of Linkedin profiles puts you in the top 2 MILLION members. Not a club that’s as exclusive as NFL quarterbacks, or Super Bowl half-time show performers, or even “people who can make a really, really good omelette.” Despite the sheep in wolf’s clothing nature of the 1% announcement, many social media participants (including Kyle, he readily admits) did a little #humblebrag chest thumping and posted about it.

As a marketing tactic, it’s an interesting case study. LinkedIn certainly became a topic of conversation in ways that it usually is not, and most assuredly millions upon millions of members went to look at their own profile. (whether this is a net positive or not is worth considering. As my friend Adam Pierno told me, he got a 5% email and then went back to the site and thought – “geez, if I’m in the top 5% why am I not benefitting more from LinkedIn?”)

Whiplash From The Backlash

Image from BigStock.com
Image from BigStock.com

But to me, the more interesting byproduct of the LinkedIn campaign is the pillorying of people who posted about their 10/5/1% designation. Just about anyone in the social media cognoscenti who had the unmitigated gall to mention they were in the top 1% on LinkedIn was instantly besieged by smarty pantses pointing out that it was only the top 2 million, and how foolish the whole exercise was, and how dare they post about it, etc.

This is what is wrong with social media.

Yes, it’s an interconnected world; Facebook and its brethren have succeeded in tying us all together like a digital cats cradle. But just because you see someone’s Facebook status in your stream, or see their tweets from time-to-time, or stumble across their LinkedIn updates, does NOT give you (in my estimation) the right to unilaterally attack them and tell them they are “doing it wrong.” A Facebook status update isn’t a blog post with a comments section; it’s not an invitation for your bile and vitriole.

If you don’t like that someone posted about their LinkedIn profile percentage – or anything else for that matter – so what? How have you been wronged? Your recourse is to scroll down, hide, delete, or unfollow. It’s not as if they mailed a cobra to your house, they just posted something to a public social network that you don’t prefer. Get a grip. Make the punishment fit the crime. And most importantly, as I learned in kindergarten: Worry about yourself. 

 

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