GO BEYOND LINKEDIN (A SAD CASE STUDY)

If you're not online anywhere (company websites don't count), LinkedIn is the one place you need to be. It's free. You control your profile. Your profile moves with you if you change jobs.

LinkedIn isn't enough. What if your access gets blocked? Mine is …

You want to be findable on other sites through a web search.

Day 1

Here's what happened. LinkedIn now has a Country Manager for Canada. Jonathan Lister is speaking at the Toronto Board of Trade on Feb 8, 2011 about

1. Marketing your business with social media
2. Building and managing your business' reputation online
3. Creating a high quality professional network online

I registered and thought that others in my network would be interested too. To inform them, I posted a message on LinkedIn (which also cross-posted to @mActuary on Twitter).

Minutes later, I got an email from a connection. He asked why I posted the update six times. I checked and the update was now posted 30 times but not by me. Twitter was working fine.

I posted another update to apologize to my network and to alert LinkedIn of the problem. As an extra precaution, I sent Jonathan a message through LinkedIn. As an extra, extra precaution, I exited my Chrome web browser and started using FireFox instead.

Day 2

I didn't notice until now, but LinkedIn retweeted exactly 12 hours later.

The problem wasn't fixed.

Day 3

I tried signing in to LinkedIn and got this message.

The only contact option is by email. I filled out the form and got this email saying "A service professional will review and respond to your inquiry as quickly as possible." That's reassuring but inaccurate.

I've been waiting over 33 hours, which is weeks in Internet time. There's no obvious way to talk to a human being and get immediate action.

Day 4

I'm getting emails from connections through LinkedIn but can't reply unless they are in my CRM system. If I can't find them online, I can't reply until LinkedIn restores access.

Your Lesson

At least I'm still findable online. Are you?

If you're looking for another place to show up, consider a free Google Profile (e.g., mine). The ideal is your own personal website (e.g., mine). If you're looking for content, start by nabbing stuff from your LinkedIn profile.

Links

• LinkedIn's Jonathan Lister discusses social media (new)
• Why you need a weak link to give excellent service
• Get foundin LinkedIn to keep growin
• Where is your Google Profile?
• Adventures in networking without ever meeting
• What if your clients could buy direct?

PS There's still time to get tickets to see Jonathan. I hope my account will be restored before then.