Via: Pixabay.com

You are probably wondering why I chose the featured image of someone picking up the trash in a post that is about LinkedIn. Well, this image, unfortunately, gives you an accurate picture of what LinkedIn has been turning into over the last few years anyway- it’s sadly becoming trash! And it really is so sad because LinkedIn at one time gave off more or less a prestigious vibe.

When I joined LinkedIn over a decade ago, I really liked how clean and professional the atmosphere was around that networking platform. There was no drama polluting the network, and those who joined and wanted to network with others did so for professional reasons only.

At one time, if you were looking for a job, LinkedIn was the place to go. Now, many people still do look for jobs through LinkedIn and have found jobs, and are still finding jobs because of that platform. If you are a business owner, you would have created a LinkedIn profile as well. It was the best thing to do at one time to help create a professional image for yourself and your business. And, LinkedIn was the place to go to in order to find some clients. All you had to do was approach them the right way.

Now, many business owners still go on LinkedIn to find clients, and like I said, many job seekers still go on LinkedIn in order to find job?leads. However, the platform has, for the most part, lost its professional image. The quality has definitely gone south. That started happening right around the time Microsoft had bought LinkedIn. Coincidence? I don’t know. But instead of finding a lot of professional business owners and potential clients on there nowadays, you are going to find the following instead:

• Scammers of all kinds
• Spam galore (though that did happen even back in the day- though, nowadays it’s a lot worse than ever)
• Men sending women (or other men) dick pics (and who knows, there may be women showing pics of their lady bits to guys. I have not heard of that happening, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were those stories around)
• Guys joining the platform thinking it is a dating site (since when did LinkedIn become Tinder?)
• Those who try to talk to you in another language knowing that you speak English.

Oh and best of all, you are going to end up running into other members that send you stuff like this:

Via: A snapshot of an odd conversation that happened on LinkedIn.

What made this conversation odd more than anything aside from the horrible grammar (well, if this person really does reside in China, then I take that back- sort of anyway) is that there is nothing on my profile that even implies that I sell laminate flooring.

I managed a client’s SEO about 7 years ago that provided carpeting, wood, and laminate flooring services. I added that reference in my portfolio. So, if this individual read that part on my profile, then he or she did not even really read my profile fully. I do freelance writing, social media content creation, and management. I don’t install laminate floors! And, there is nowhere on my profile that implies that at all. That said, you have people on LinkedIn who want to add you for the sake of adding you- and really don’t read a thing about what you do and what you offer.

I have heard of people disabling their LinkedIn accounts for this very reason. I am not sure if I would go that far, not yet anyway. Even though the quality of the platform has been worsening over time, there still?could be a few good eggs that want to connect with you on there for professional reasons.