I blogged on August 10th about LinkedIn "pulling a Facebook" on us and posting our data to third party advertisers. That was followed by instructions on how to opt out.
On August 11th, the "internets" was abuzz with protest about it.
Today, August 12th, LinkedIn announced a change to this privacy issue in a blog post entitled "Privacy, Advertising, and Putting Members First."
In this blog post, after telling us ...
- that they told us way back in early June that this is what they were planning to do and how to opt out ("In early June, we announced changes to our privacy policy — including the new ad format’s opt-out policy — ahead of the first small test of these social ads."), and then ...
- telling us again that they reminded us ("We also reiterated the same during the launch of social ads, explaining how members could opt-out of sharing their recommendations with their network."), and then ...
- in case we didn't notice what they had already told us, they told us visually ("For those members who may have not read this on our blog, we included a banner ad on the site that contained a link to the new documents, including a summary of the changes, and links from which all members could easily access their account settings.")
So, the good people at LinkedIn told us three times. To be fair, their second link (the launch of social ads) provided not only a text description but a visual example. They did tell us. Nobody listened, or maybe nobody cared, until people started seeing their pictures in ads. Now, they have fixed it and we won't have our pictures in ads.
Hopefully LinkedIn has learned a lesson about privacy - even if you tell us you're going to put our pictures in ads, don't.
The Platform Still Works So Don't Let This Hiccup Sour You on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is still a valuable platform for professionals. I believe it is the best platform for professionals. An August 9th article in Forbes by Susan Gunelius (Study Reveals How Professionals Use LinkedIn), affirms LinkedIn's usefulness.
In terms of how frequently LinkedIn users log in and actively use the site, 2 out of 3 members use the site at least a few times per week or more. Specifically, 35% of users access LinkedIn daily and 32% access the site a few times per week. Another 16% log into LinkedIn a few times per month while 8% log in whenever they get an email from LinkedIn.
Compare that to the 2% of users who log in monthly or the 6% of users who access LinkedIn less than once per month, and it's clear that LinkedIn users are satisfied enough with the user experience that they actively return and want more. Just 1% of respondents to the Lab42 survey indicated that they never access LinkedIn. That's a rate that a site like Twitter would love to have!
Yet, as the article notes, LinkedIn is now a public company and has revenue goals to meet. The recent Social Media Advertising kerfuffle might be one of a string of missteps. I hope not because it is a useful platform and one on which you should have a presence.
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