Comments on: Linkedin Destroys Company Confidentiality – No it doesn’t

By: LinkedIn – Dos and Donts « External Works

LinkedIn – Dos and Donts « External Works — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:19:51 +0000

[...] Su Butcher’s take on LinkedIn and company confidentiality. Embrace [...]

By: Su

Su — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:42:10 +0000

Hi Rhianne,
Thanks for your comment and the interesting link. I didn’t know about the competition and yes, think its a bit of a headline – grabber rather than a sensible way to consult the public. After all, Barack Obama didn’t invent a new platform to connect with his supporters, he went where they already were – very successfully.
In spite of their faults, the most popular social media platforms have one important quality which is hard to ignore – they are popular.

By: Su

Su — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:37:22 +0000

Thanks for your input Ian, your expertise on Linkedin continues to impress me!

By: LadyBizBiz

LadyBizBiz — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:56:13 +0000

Su
It’s all been said by your other contributers. Individuals have to make up their own minds – it basically hinges on their own confidence levels whether they engage in social media or not.
It is an obviously case of paranoia. All those doubters will probably ‘run a mile’ when they read about this.
In readiness for new Conservative Gvt, the Conservative Party will publish a Competiton with a prize worth £1,000,000 http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2009/12/Harnessing_the_wisdom_of_crowds_in_policy_making.aspx
My personal feeling: a new platform to allow crowd-sourcing is one thing, but let’s not hide the obvious response – Why spend £1m of taxpayers money when the answers are already out there within the social media platforms?

By: Ian McA

Ian McA — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:23:46 +0000

Good blog Su!

You have rightly highlighted the “but Google already sees you” enlightenment answer to your colleague. Most still don’t see this – found an ex-girlfriend recently through her donation to a charity, and excluded a candidate on a job application thanks to his comments on a “closed” right wing website.

The advantage of embracing social media is the management of the “what Google finds out about you” answer that an employer or competitor will find about about you. But you shouldn’t see LinkedIn as that.

LI is generally non-Google searchable, except your profile page. Hence, LI is a network connectivity/span tool over a SM platform. However, once connected LI sucks in your SM details, and distributes it to your network. Hence connecting on LI increases your managed exposure and hence leverage across connections: which can be colleagues, customers and competitors.

We have never been islands, and SM just highlights how connected we all are. Either you embrace and manage your reputation on it, or you will be rejected by others at some point because of it. Of all the SN’s, LI is the safest and most essential for anyone calling themselves a professional. Facebook in comparison is a personal and legal liability!

By: Su

Su — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:36:18 +0000

Good point Roberta, One of my twitter contacts mentioned last night that large companies can be like oil tankers when you're trying to change culture. Paul Wilkinson wrote about that recently on his blog - Ban social media, lose the marketing war, lose staff - giving an example of the downside of at least understanding these technologies and responding constructively.

By: Su

Su — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:34:16 +0000

Spot on Andy – lets face it this information is useful to us all, one could say that there is no place to hide from poor customer service any longer.

By: Su

Su — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:33:24 +0000

Thanks for that considered response Irene, Irene has some great Linkedin resources over at Almost Savvy.

By: Roberta Ward

Roberta Ward — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:03:09 +0000

People have been used to doing business in a closed fashion where they control the process. What scares companies about social media is the randomness and the fact that there is nowhere to hide if things go wrong. But every situation whether good or bad can be turned in your favour.
People always fear the unknown because there is no precedent in place to deal with the ‘newness’.Habits can be hard things to break!

By: Andy Lopata

Andy Lopata — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:37:09 +0000

This is one of the most common concerns raised when I talk about LinkedIn, especially with corporate clients.

You are absolutely right to say that these risks exist anyway. I would question whether too much is being made of them. If I have built and maintain strong relationships with my clients and continually deliver strong results, should I be worried about a competitor contacting them?

If people have such concerns perhaps the first step should be to look at their client relationship management. Get that right and you should have no other concerns.