Why Linkedin Should Eliminate The "Open" Groups Option

Yesterday I left 4 Linkedin groups because their owners made the irreversible mistake of switching from "members only" to "open". In "members only" groups, only members can post and read discussions. In "open" groups, only members can post but anybody with an internet connection can read and follow discussions.

Being in an open group is a little like installing one way glass throughout your house so that outsiders can look in but you can't see who's looking at you.

I think open groups is one of the stupidest things Linkedin has ever done. I love the power of LInkedin. There are things you can do with Linkedin that Facebook doesn't even know you need to do but sometimes I think the suits who run Linkedin have never used it themselves. If they did, they would realize that "open" groups are an attack on group member privacy and that the only people who benefit from "open" groups are the exhibitionists who try to fill the new discussions carousels of every group they belong to and update their status every 5 minutes. (By the way, I have recently removed connections who constantly update their status and I have ejected or changed the posting permissions of group members who lack the empathy, consideration and impulse control to exercise posting restraint. I warn them first, refer them to group rules, then eject them if they persist in making a nuisance of themselves.)

When Linkedin first announced that groups could switch from "members only" to "open" I announced to my groups that I would never betray them by making my Linkedin groups "open" and that my 3 Linkedin groups would only go "open" when Linkedin pried the  "members only" option from my cold, dead hands. They thanked me for it. Except for the exhibitionists, Linkedin users don't like "open" groups.

I've done my part to prevent group owners from switching to "open". I've sent other group owners personal messages in which I predicted that switching from "members only" to "open" would have a chilling effect on discussion. Several group owners who already made the switch and regretted it have asked me how to switch back to "members only". As far as I can tell, the door from "members only" to "open" swings only one way; once you've gone open the only way to go back to "members only" is to delete the group and start a new one.

If you own a Linkedin group and you've already made the mistake of switching from "members only" to "open", I suggest you go ahead and bite the bullet and delete your group. It's easier if your group is small because you'll inconvenience fewer members. The group owners with a really big problem are the  ones with really big groups - unless those groups are full of exhibitionists who want as many people as possible to see their mug shots and read their spammy discussions.

I don't have any data to support this but I suspect there are two reasons group owners make the mistake of switching from "members only" to "open". The first reason is laziness. I suspect that some group owners, upon discovering that there's actual work involved in owning a Linkedin group, make their groups "open" because they think they'll have to act upon fewer membership requests.

The second reason some group owners switch their groups from "members only" to "open" is lack of empathy, inability to imagine how naked and invaded and betrayed members will feel when they find out anybody with an internet connection can spy on their group discussions.

It's because of these lazy and unempathetic group owners that Linkedin should do away with the "open" groups option and switch all groups back to "members only".

More On Making Your Linkedin Account Work Harder For You

After reading yesterday's post about why Linkedin users need to put some contact info on their Linkedin profiles, a Big Apple correspondent asked me why I didn't mention Inmail.

Simple. Most Linkedin users have the free account and aren't willing to pay extra to send Inmail via Linkedin.

Personally, I think Linkedin has made a big mistake by not enabling free messaging between all Linkedin account holders as Facebook has done. In Facebook, you have to opt out or use your account settings to place restrictions on who can send you a message via Facebook. On Linkedin you have to opt in - and it costs you.

See my September 1 2010 post about how Linkedin's stubborn refusal to become more like Facebook in this one regard has, in my opinion, retarded Linkedin's growth and allowed Facebook to siphon off professional and business users who should be using Linkedin more and Facebook less. With Linkedin's superior search capabilities and business conscious demographic, business and professional users would undoubtedly use Linkedin much more than they already do if they could send messages to other Linkedin users who are outside their networks.

To summarize, unless you pay for Linkedin's branded "Inmail" messaging, you cannot send a message to Linkedin  users who are outside your network. In other words, you can message 1st-level connections and you can message members of the groups you belong to so in addition to putting actual contact info on your profile you should also join groups and start sending connection requests to other Linkedin users.

But Did You Put Actual Contact Information On Your Linkedin Profile?

Do you have actual contact information on your Linkedin profile?

Don't be like the consultant who appeared on a Charleston, WV radio show and invited listeners to get in touch with her through Linkedin. There was no contact info on her Linkedin page so the only listeners who could actually contact her were the people who were already 1st-level connections in Linkedin or members the same LInkedin groups of which she was a member.

I looked her up in the phone book and sent her a note telling her she should put actual contact info in her profile. I suggested she put it in the "SUMMARY" section of her profile where it will show up in Google searches.

Still, she insisted that "all her info was public". No, it wasn't. Linkedin has your email address but it only shows up on your profile to people with whom you are already connected in some way - either through direct, first-level connection or through a group, primarily.

If you want your phone number and/or email to show up on your profile you have to put it there.

Yesterday I noticed that a member of one of my Linkedin groups was looking for a job. On his Linkedin profile he said recruiters and headhunters should contact him by email but his email address appeared nowhere on his profile. When I brought the omission to his attention he thanked me and expressed embarrassment.

Have you looked at your profile? Does it contain actual contact information?

I ask because I spend about an hour or two each day inviting new members to my 3 Linkedin groups and I'd say that only about 3 or 4% of the profiles I see contain any contact info which means I may have tried to invite you to join one of my groups but didn't have a way to contact you.

Have you Googled yourself to see what non-Linkedin users see in your public Linkedin profile (which is different than the profile your direct connections see).

Make your Linkedin account work harder for you. Put actual contact information in your Linkedin profile.

I have actual contact info - phone number and email address - 2 places on my profile: under "contact settings" and, more importantly, in the "Summary" section which shows up in Google searches on my public profile.

Don't make prospective clients or employers work so hard to contact you. Put actual contact information on your Linkedin profile. Make your Linkedin account work harder, don't make potential contacts work harder.

Oh, and if you are logging on to your Linkedin account every day - as you should - and checking your "inbox" and looking at "who's viewed your profile" you may have noticed that a lot of people you know or want to know have viewed your profile but didn't contact you. Is it because you didn't put actual contact information on your profile?

Don't make your prospective contacts work harder, make your Linkedin account work harder. Put contact information on your Linkedin profile.

Higginbotham At Large no longer takes the time to moderate comments which means Higginbotham At Large no longer publishes comments. Send your fan mail, hate mail, stock tips and suggestions to JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.

Linkedin Tips: How To Make Your Linkedin Profile Work Harder For You

Are you making people work way too hard to get in touch with you? Are you making your Linkedin profile work hard enough for you? If you don't have actual contact information in your Linkedin profile then you're using Linkedin to tease people, not to meet new people and, as my friend, Grover Mollineaux,  says, "Nothing good happens until you meet somebody." If you don't have actual contact information on your LInkedin profile, you're like a pretty girl who won't give out her phone number or email address and then wonders why she doesn't get dates.

Do you have actual contact information on your Linkedin profile or is your profile just a tease?

On her Linkedin profile, a recent graduate of West Virginia Junior College wrote a passionate pitch for a job in her field of study but her Linkedin profile provided no contact information whatsoever. Oh, and she didn’t belong to any Linkedin groups. I’ll say more about Linkedin groups in a moment.

One Kanawha Valley Linkedin use wrote on his Linkedin profile “the best way to get in touch with me is email” but he failed to put his email address on his Linkedin profile.

A friend of a friend of mine recently paid a lot of money to be on the radio. During her radio appearance she mentioned that she needed people to refer math tutors to her for business reasons. Well, I did what I always do: I looked her up in Linkedin and, wouldn’t you know it, there was no phone number and no email address on her Linkedin profile. Well, after I did some Googling I found her email address and her phone number and emailed that info to my friend, Charles Pique, who is a math tutor. Then I emailed the person on the radio to tell her she made me work way too hard to help her and asked why she doesn’t have actual contact info on her Linkedin profile. She wrote back and said she had “made it all public” and she didn’t know why I couldn’t find her contact info.

From that comment it was obvious to me that she hasn’t actually looked at her own profile or she would see what others see: that she is not making her Linkedin profile work hard enough for her and she is making other professionals work too hard to find contact info. I don’t know, maybe she already has all the business she needs but if you’re like most Linkedin users, you need clients so make it easy for clients to find you.

I have my email address in the “summary” field right beneath my name and then it appears again under “contact settings”. Most Linkedin users have no actual contact information under “contact settings”. I’ll never understand why not.

Now, let’s talk about Linkedin groups. Linkedin groups are a powerful way to instantly make yourself easy to reach by other Linkedin users. There are geographic groups, professional groups, hobby groups, all kinds of groups. Let’s say you want to do more business with the people who live in your town. Go to the “groups” field and type the name of your city or state and see if there’s a group by that name then join it. Or, let’s say you want to meet other people who share your interests or hobbies. In the “groups” field simply type “coin collecting” or “gardening” or whatever and look at the available groups and join some.

When you sign up for a group, you’ll be asked if you wish for other group members to be able to contact you via Linkedin. Check the box that enables that function. If your group has 10,000 members you’ve just become accessible to 10,000 people.

Make your Linkedin profile work harder for you. Make people who look at your profile work less. Put some actual contact info in your Linkedin profile and join some groups.