Received my very first “LinkedIn Partner Message” – and thought it worth talking about.
It’s not really an important message to me, but if we don’t pull it up for a moment to discuss, people could be threatening to cancel their memberships..
The message – from a paying customer
Here’s what the top of my “Inbox” looked like today:
Wow – that’s not something I’ve seen before, so of course I had to check it out…
Just another message
So – inside the message is some text from Shaun who apparently thinks I’m a Web Developer or Designer. (I say that because he says “Hi Steve, … We want to help Web Developers and Designers, like you, …“)
As I’m not one of those, the message doesn’t do a whole lot for me – but if I was – the offer made looks like…
Who am I kidding?
The offer is like any other that pretends to know me and my interests…
But hey – LinkedIn pocketed Shaun’s money and he got to get in front of a bunch of people that matched the search criteria for the advertisement.
(He should ask for the money back for the message I received, but it was probably a selection criteria that I do happen to meet, so it might just waste his time too…)
Let’s not over react
So – LinkedIn has had me as a customer for years now, and if they can get some money in return for helping me for all this time, I’m not going to quibble about it.
If they start flooding my inbox with these – well, let’s just say my attitude might change…-)
(And – they did not send me an email to let me know that I had this new ad, so they seem to have some clue – wouldn’t that have been great: Hey Steve – you’ve got a new advertisement – click on over to check it out!-)
Detailed selection
In case you doubt LinkedIn’s knowledge of their subscriber base, check out this page:
LinkedIn’s Advertising Audience
That’s a nice comparison with other sites that affluent, influential professionals might also visit – and a good reason to use LinkedIn for advertising if you can define your target market well.
But we knew this, right?
This isn’t a shock to you, right? LinkedIn has to earn money to make it all work, and as I pointed out earlier – that’s a good thing.
But it’s got to stay reasonable and tasteful…
So we’ll just have to keep our eye on it.
To your continued success,
steve
—
Steven Tylock
http://www.linkedinpersonaltrainer.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetylock