Dear LinkedIn, Please Fix Your Stuff

Last week I read that Chris Brogan closed his LinkedIn account because it was no longer working for him. Not just “not working” in that it doesn’t drive business or suit his needs, it actually wasn’t working.

I like LinkedIn, I really do. I like that you can export contacts and in fact reinstate your account if you do decide to cancel it (which in itself is a lesson to those who think that their data is solely theirs.) I like how you can keep tabs with colleagues, and it provides an easier entry point to connect online with people you don’t know as well. I like how users exchange ideas, how business use it to recruit, network and share ideas. I like it how it can drive traffic to sites. Lots of advantages.

But it is broken. Chris mentioned his frustrations. Here are mine:

1) At one point the LinkedIn Share button on searchengineland.com had been hacked. Luckily this was resolved, but it’s unsettling that something like this could happen. SEL attracts significant traffic, and it impacted overall user experience that’s expected ON THE SITE – not on the social platform.

2) On the Search Engine Land and Marketing Land Groups, the Manager’s Choice options are both broken. The Search Engine Land group button has been broken for 10 months, and the Marketing Land group button is now broken. We submitted previous help requests for this as well, without a clear answer besides it’s a “known bug.” The news we have had posted in Manager’s Choice is extremely outdated and it gives the impression that we are not actively managing the site. My own profile is associated with the last post we made to Manager’s Choice – having an outdated post also makes me look bad. Did I mention it has been broken for ten months?

3) The newest issue was the email notifications generated when the moderators comment on a discussion, or approve a discussion in our groups. When we commented on a discussion, there is a check box that offers email updates of that discussion. Although the check box is marked, we did not receive updates. This has been fixed as well, but without follow up. I had to do the work and keep checking and testing.

I mentioned that it is getting increasingly difficult to get a clear answer of when these issues will be resolved. I begged at times, and contacted whomever would listen. Unfortunately these problems seem to compound as the group gets larger, just when we need to manage the groups more frequently. I wish these tools were more reliable.