Why Linkedin Sucks

This is from Stone Street Advisors

I'm
probably one of Linkedin's ideal users/customers: I'm a white collar
professional looking to expand my professional network, get a (better)
job, and promote a growing website/business.  Yet I utterly and
passionately despite Linkedin.  It clogs my inbox with reminders that
someone with whom I already know and communicate wants to "connect" on
the network.  I don't need to connect with my real/former/quasi-friends
on Linkedin, that's what Facebook is for.  I've never had any semblance
of success "networking" my way to a job or even interview using
Linkedin, although I suppose that's because I'm neither 1. in/looking
for a sales job and 2. not a shameless "connection" whore; I understand
the unspoken social contract that there's a difference between reaching
out and hustling for an interview, and annoying those very same people
who have the position/influence to get me one.

I could keep going
like this forever, but to make it a little more organized, let's just
run through a few of them, in no particular order.  If you can think of
any that I missed, please post in the comments!

• The
  only reason to visit the website once you've created your profile is to
  go through the weeks/months of connections/invites you've been spammed
  with over that time.  Linkedin is like a necessary evil, not something
  we do because we enjoy it or because it makes our lives
  better/easier/more interesting.  No one thinks to themselves "I wonder
  if anyone in my professional network has added anybody to theirs, or if
  they've updated their work experience?" and then logs in to check with
  baited breath.  No one "surfs the 'link" like they "surf the 'book" on
  their lunch break.  No one follows their dream employers' pages like
  they do their favorite sports teams.  No one lives vicariously through
  other people's work experience like they do other people's Caribbean
  vacation pictures.  No one comments on "status updates."  No one "shares" videos/pictures/articles/whatever on Linkedin.
• For
  users (those with a profile), all Linkedin does is visualize the
  contacts that ALREADY EXIST in your email in/outbox.  You can go
  "MySpace" on your contacts' contacts (i.e. adding people you don't
  really/barely know as if you did), but that's a really low-value waste
  of time, and gets old, fast.
• I do not know anyone, nor have I
  ever heard of anyone, even in passing, who has gotten a job from
  Linkedin.  Why is that, you ask?
• The main reason the vast
  majority of us are on Linkedin, the main reason we voluntarily post our
  education/work history for the World (or at least our Networks) to see
  is because we're holding out hope that perhaps, maybe, just maybe,
  someone above us on the career ladder will happen upon our profile and
  think "Wow, this person looks great, let me hire him/her with a nice fat
  salary!"  I've conducted an exhaustive scientific study, and can verify
  that (absent sales gigs) this has never happened.
• The
  reason this has never happened is because professional networks 
  -whether in real life or on a computer screen - are all about "what can
  you do for ME?"  Hiring managers don't want to be inundated with pokes
  or 'connects' or whatever pestering digital notifications on the network
  are called.  They want to - as their profiles say - hear about ways to
  improve THEIR careers, their standing, not about how you once met
  someone they worked with in their 2nd job right out of college and now
  would like to be granted an interview for a job you don't have
  available.
• Linkedin has been getting more and more revenue from its "marketing solutions" segment. 
  As Patty Edwards (CNBC Fast Money) remarked to me yesterday, "I didn't
  even know Linkedin HAD ads!" and frankly, until I looked JUST NOW, I
  didn't notice, either!  Even though Linkedin has amazing and accurate
  data that advertisers LOVE, and even though ad prices are relatively
  low, what's the point of advertising to your target market if they're not actually SEEING the ads? 
  While marketing revenue may increase in the near-to-intermediate
  future, eventually advertisers start paying attention to metrics
  ("eventually" being the key word).
• Page 15 of the S-1 registration statement,
  under Risk Factors: "Our core value of putting our members first may
  conflict with the short-term interests of our business. " Take a second
  to think about what Linkedin is saying here: "We put our members (who
  don't generally pay us) first as a matter of principle, and in so doing,
  forgo revenue opportunities.  We will continue to do this going
  forward, even though our shares and thereby our own personal wealth will
  increasingly be dictated by "the market," which will totally understand
  us thumbing our noses at those trying to throw money at us..."  Find me
  a management team at any web company that believes its users will run
  for the hills for anything less than the most extreme management fuck-up
  and I'll write you a check for whatever's in my bank account right
  now.  Eventually, when the momentum starts to slow and they've floated
  significantly more stock via follow-on offerings, Linkedin management
  will feel the pressure to maintain revenue growth.  This is not a
  question of "if," it is a question of "when."  Just pay attention to
  changes in the Terms of Service and see what information they can/can't
  monetize and how...

Notice I have not made any reference to
Linkedin's financial metrics.  For now, I am talking only about the
qualitative.  In a quarter or two I'll get to the financial analysis,
but if you're ambitious, watch the accrual accounts on the balance
sheet...

Disclosure: No position in or relating to LNKD.

The Analyst

Stone Street Advisors

Comments

[vast-dom]

It's not even a dog. It's vapordog. Investors can't be this inane so it's just a little profit-taking before she goes to mid $20s at BEST.

Soon as I can short this ether-pooch I will.

[andybev01]

http://images.juniorslayouts.com/picture/1/t/the_jetsons_astro_the_dog-4...

That, ether-pooch?

[IdioTsincracY]

LinkedIn is an anti-unemployment play ... wall street is expecting massive unemployment

[Inspector Bird]

I think LinkedIn is a valuable resource, but not what they think it's worth.

I keep my business friends and acquaitances on LinkedIn and social friends and acquaintances on Facebook.

I do work business/networking on LinkedIn, and very little if any on Facebook.

I share thoughts and views on Facebook, but keep LinkedIn for my professional "online look".

Lots of flexibility by having 2 personalities that are appreciably different.

[WallStreetClass...]

...and you share your contrived experiences on ZH? a multiple personality disorder beacons...

[rumblefish]

couldnt agree more. linked is a moronic concept. .....

I love the contrived recommendations inept people give each other.

welcome back to 1999

[WallStreetClass...]

The bigger issue with LinkedIn is that sharing your Rolodex (one of your key assets) with the entire world is just plain stoopid. Creating profile is annoying, as everyone and their cousin start sending connect requests, and I personally don't want these different sub-groups of people to know each other, for instance. I also could care less about headhunters cold calling, I never had a problem landing a gig in my life. Only losers and ASSorted sheeple are on LinkedIn, profiling. The rest of us are linked anyway.

There goes another DOt-BOMB bubble, short the shit out of it whenever possible.

[Stone Street Ad...]

Good point, why share your network that you've worked to build with others who haven't?  Thanks for the comment.

[WallStreetClass...]

The fucktards at Stone Street are freakin fraudster ass lickers. Anything they write is wrong by definition.

[crosey]

Market was just ripe for a tech IPO, that's all.  LinkedIn is okay, but it will fade and something else will take its place.

[Chicago_CTA]

RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE.

I've been called by recruiters who use LinkedIn to place qualified people about six or seven times in the past year alone.   Sometimes the offers are here in Chicago; sometimes in other cities.    Usually they don't interest me;   Some are interesting prop futures trading positions, sometimes it's for a sales job, etc.

Like most things in life you get what you put in.  I find LinkedIn useful for maintaining my contacts (most of whom I would NOT want on my FB profile page), and networking.

I could care less about LNKD, but the [free] application is useful.

IF you don't like it, don't use it - no need to piss and moan.

--Chicago CTA

[Stone Street Ad...]

Thanks for the comment, appreciate the perspective.  In my experience personally and anecdotally, good experiences with linkedin are the extremely rare exception, not the rule.

--The Analyst

[Logans_Run]

I think the only hope for those that buy at the top is that Rupert will decide he needs to make another huge "MySpace" mistake.

[RockyRacoon]

Cramer says the same -- wants the SEC to put a stop to the hyping such as this.

Now that's weird.

[VegasBob]

I thought about calling my broker today and shorting 1000 shares of LNKD.  But I didn't, because even though I believe the LinkedIn bulls are in a bizarro world fantasyland, I think that goddamn son of a bitch Bernanke will bail them out one more time after the markets figure out this stock is just a sugar-coated turd.

[ghostfaceinvestah]

You can call your broker all you want, there is no borrow.  Believe me, I am waiting patiently until I can short.

[Stone Street Ad...]

I'm told options should be out May, 27th.  Get long puts.

--The Analyst

[equity_momo]

Totally agree. Im sure many of us have a LNKD profile and check it maybe once a quarter , if that. Its a horrible platform if social media is your thing (im trying not to get sucked into it but todays generation seem not to want to use phones to talk on , its all about IMs and typing. sad)

Perhaps LNKD will replace twitter for the start of the yuppy revolution though....

[moneymutt]

agree with Ugrev...only time I pick up phone is when I'm reasonably assure person will answer and I need to dialogue extensively with someone. If there will be a lot of back and forth about simply stuff (stuff that does not need lots of reference mat'l handy) I prefer a face to face meeting or phone conversation to much more quickly slog thru something, talking is faster and is in real time (so is IM or texting but if lots of words needed with lots of back and forth, voice is way to go.)

But in most things texting, IM'ing or email is by far much more efficient. I hate recovering voice mails, so much prefer to get a text message. And both text and emails can be answered at your convenience, and are less disruptive than voice...like I can be function at a meeting and a seminar and still respond to a text or email...or while I watch a video, or eat at a restaurant...much more preferable to me that others text rather than loud talk on phone.

[andybev01]

I never really gave it that much thought but, the phone part of my 'phone' almost never gets used.

[robins]

Wow, this was a top quality post. In theory I'd like to write like this too, taking time and real effort to make a good article. buy facebook fans

[UGrev]

Phones suck, bro. Pop an email off, leave a text message..send a linked in msg.. it's all fire and forget and I (as the recipient) don't have to *86 and enter my pin, then key in to advance my messages. 

The only time I pick up the phone is if it will take too long to express in an email or a quick IM. There is a critical mass (for me at least) in the size of an email or a "fire and forget" message, which I will just not bother and I'll call; but for the quick "connect".. fire and forget FTW!

[Stone Street Ad...]

I avoid talking on the phone like the plague, but what I've found over the years is that some things are best said that way or in person, as alot gets lost in text (inflection, tone, etc).  Especially if things are going back/forth, be smart, pick up the phone ASAP before it spirals out of control.

--The Analyst

[laughing_swordfish]

+ 1000

 MUST reading if you are even contemplating anything with LNKD other than a short at the right time.