January 3, 2012
It’s the start of the new year and I am getting myself geared up for a new year of possibility! I love planning resolutions and creating goals for the upcoming year. One of my resolutions is to update my financial portfolio. Looking at the stocks I own, I was surprised to see that I didn’t own a single share of LinkedIn. I love LinkedIn and I truly believe in it’s future. And so with a hit of a button, I am now an official stockholder of LinkedIn!
Poking around LinkedIn’s Google Finance profile, I noticed a listing of LinkedIn Executives and I couldn’t help but wonder about their LinkedIn profiles. It didn’t take long to find their LinkedIn profiles:
Click their name to see their LinkedIn profile.
Jeffrey (Jeff) Weiner, Chief Executive Officer, Director
David Henke, SVP Operations and Engineering
Reid Hoffman, Chairman of the Board
Steven J. Sordello, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Michael Gamson, Senior Vice President – Global Sales
Erika Rottenberg, Vice President, General Counsel, Secretary
Nick Besbeas, Vice President of Marketing
Steve Cadigan, Vice President, Talent
Robby Kwok, Head of Corporate Development
Deep Nishar, Senior Vice President, Products and User Experience
Looking at LinkedIn’s Executive Team’s LinkedIn profiles, I was surprised to see similarities among them. I created this table to compare and contrast their profiles:
1. Profile Pictures
Their LinkedIn Profile pictures are all cropped closely around their faces and the background is either white or light blue.
2. Recommendations
The average number of recommendations is 8.9. Two executives have 0 recommendations. Reid Hoffman has the most at 49.
3. Connections
LinkedIn tells us to only connect with those we know and trust. All of LinkedIn’s Executive Team leaders have over 500+ connections.
4. Twitter
The majority of LinkedIn executives have their Twitter accounts connected to LinkedIn.
5. Volunteer Experience & Causes
Almost all of them have Volunteer Experience & Causes listed
6. Skills
11.5 is the average number of skills listed. Steve Cadigan has the most skills with 37 listed on his LinkedIn profile.
7. LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups are important to the LinkedIn Executives. The average number of Groups listed on their profiles is 22.9
8. Contact Request Information
The LinkedIn executives tell their readership how they want to engage in communication.
This blurb appears on a couple profiles:
Please do not request to connect with me unless we know one another, worked together or went to school together. By only connecting with people I know, I am able to recommend my connections, serve as a reference and count on only receiving high quality and relevant introductions and requests. Of course, a photo on your profile and a personalized message is always helpful to remind me of you.
LinkedIn Founder, Reid Hoffman’s profile gives this advice:
Unfortunately, I’m extremely busy.
First: if you have an interest in getting my attention for an investment, working at Linkedin, a business development deal (for Linkedin or another portfolio company), then I *highly* recommend that you get an introduction to me. I am almost certainly not going to engage without a reference/introduction.
Second: I am generally not available for new projects. If it’s a new project, you must have a great introduction. Otherwise, I generally recommend you indicate who you would like to be connected with at one of my organizations to proceed.
Third: sadly, because I’m busy, if your communication to me is just a generic “ask” of me, I’m very likely just to decline it. Nevertheless, I wish you the best success if your project is a good improvement in the world.
LinkedIn’s Executive Team is well represented on LinkedIn. Most have put effort into building their profile. Unfortunately, like most people, the LinkedIn Executives are not truly optimizing their profiles. Perhaps since they are working for a successful company and feel secure, they don’t feel the need to truly sell their value. Of the team’s profiles, my favorite is Mike Gamson’s profile. He is their Senior Vice President of Global Sales. It makes sense that the sales guy is the one who customizes his profile and provides the most WIIFM.
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I am shocked at how stark and boring these profiles are. You should send them all a copy of your book!
Hi Larry! I agree, their profiles are very boring AND almost all of them basically say, “Don’t bother connecting with me, I am not interested in communicating or interacting!”
Hi Donna,
Firstly, may i commend you on your great site; it’s fabulously warm and very personable.
On this particular subject matter, i agree, they seem very cold and completely
un-interested, which really seems to go against the grain of what they are promoting!
I am thinking of doing something similar to you back here in the UK, but i still have a lot to learn yet, so not at the moment.
Kind Regards
Ian
HI Ian! It was great chatting with you the other day. I wish you the best of luck in your venture. Do let me know if I can offer any advice or assistance.
–Donna
Very interesting article! What these executives are saying is: It does not make any difference having social contacts, like LinkedIn!