The professional world of LinkedIn has brought up many etiquette issues. It’s a bit confusing where humor and sarcasm have their place among connections, but it’s important to remember that it’s still social media under the reign of King Content and Queen Conversation. To get you started, here are a few etiquette rules to follow in the business social media kingdom of LinkedIn.
Is your LinkedIn etiquette up to par?
1. It’s LinkedIn, not Linkedin
Despite the infamous logo, the “I” in “In” is capitalized.
2. Let’s Not Get Personal
LinkedIn isn’t for the latest and greatest cat pictures or events of your personal life. I’m betting that you wouldn’t walk into a business meeting with photos ready of last weekend’s adventure, right? Approach LinkedIn the same way. If the line is blurry between personal and professional, err on the side of caution and keep it for another social media platform like Facebook.
3. Tasty Humor, Not Tasteless Satire
There’s no need to let controversy fly on LinkedIn; nor is it professional to be mean-spirited, outlandish, tasteless or negative in tone. If you want to post a meme that echoes common office humor to share with other connections, have at it, as long as it’s good, clean humor. Again, there are other social media platforms to get a little risky with.
4. You Don’t Need To Share Everything
It is not your mission to become a one-man Buzzfeed, nor do any of your connections wish you to. People will get very annoyed if their feed is bombarded by one-sided articles about one specific thing. Instead, filter your content and only post the best articles that are relevant – and be sporadic. Consider posting once or twice a day Monday through Friday. Just because everyone can see you, doesn’t mean they are reading.
5. Just Because They Said Yes Doesn’t Mean You’re Best Friends
This is a tough one. Many people receive invitations on LinkedIn from possible connections they may have something in common with, and then start getting bombarded with sales pitches and random articles. If you send out an invitation, be selective and appreciative of those that say yes. It isn’t necessary that you become best friends with all your connections on this platform.
This is just the start of a series examining each of the major 6 social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn. Check back next week for more LinkedIn tips and tricks to use for your page.
Photo Credit: TheSeafarer
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