blog – The Consulting Artist

The LinkedIn Publish Feature – Two Reasons Why It Sucks

I think I got out of the wrong side of my social media bed today – #grumpy

If you’ve been anywhere near LinkedIn in recent weeks you’ll have noticed that pretty much everybody is now ‘taking advantage’ of their new(ish) publishing feature. When once you might have visited LinkedIn to look for a job, or get in touch with someone, now…LinkedIn is all over the place.

So – in a half arsed attempt to put myself in a better mood and get this off my chest, here are my two reasons why LinkedIn’s publish feature sucks.

1 – It’s relentless, the online equivalent of being repeatedly hit over the head with a sock full of marbles #grumpystreetfight. The torrent – and that is how LinkedIn feels to me currently, a torrent, it’s overwhelming. I’m not waving, I’m drowning.

2 – It makes LinkedIn feel like a badly laid out supermarket. I hate it when I go shopping and those damn marketing types have moved the apples, or switched the beer and the nappies around. I can’t find anything anymore #grumpyshopper. Currently – the same goes for LinkedIn, it’s all over the place, confused. Has someone given the marketing department the keys to the restricted meds cupboard again?

Fear not – it’s not all doom and gloom. My friend Gautam Ghosh sent me this link on how to mute the endless stream of notifications. Warning – this helpful hint has been posted on the LinkedIn publish platform!

Looking on the bright side – after a start like this, today can only get better, right?

Mama Weer All Krazee Now

The office is closed today. London awaits, and an evening with Rush beckons. I know many people who have never heard of Rush and many people who have, and wish they hadn’t. They are different. They’re not everyone’s cup of tea and that’s great – difference makes the world go round. By way of something else a little different, a little crazy, I just thought I’d share with you a few of the search terms that have led people to the blog this week.

‘Zombie HR’ – a personal fave 🙂

‘What a Load of Rubbish’ – Thanks for your feedback. Or does this relate to Rush, who knows…?

‘What is love?’ – the eternal question

‘Why losing is good for you’ – I wish I knew!

‘Rocket from a bottle’ – Hmmmm, Xtc?

‘Is fun a corporate value?’ – No, no it bloody isn’t!

‘Tell your own story’ – Absolutely.

Not a bad little list eh? Proof, if it were needed, that we’re heading in a good direction. Have a great bank holiday weekend folks.

Curation – A Disturbance in the Force

As you know – I’ve just curated the Carnival of HR for the second time. The response from all quarters was very encouraging thank you, and the blog had its busiest day so far this month. I appreciate the support – and before the Carnival packs up and heads on to the next destination I wanted to share three things I learned from the curation process.

Deadline

Despite marking time in my diary to bring the Carnival together, I struggled to get going because I got hung up on the submission deadline. This meant I waited until everyone had contributed before I began to plan and write up the curation. I also accepted late submissions, though I didn’t try to factor them into the Carnival theme. The next time I do something like this I will seek an earlier deadline so that I can begin the curation process sooner.

Time

It takes a lot of time to curate a Carnival. Each post needs to be read and considered. Does it fit the theme? What is it about each post that I should reference in the curation summary? It took me over six hours to pull everything together and whilst I appreciate that I am inexperienced in this field, I expect even a seasoned curator like Michael Carty or Martin Couzins would echo that the process of curation is a time consuming one. And reflecting on the feedback I’ve received – I think that investment is necessary, otherwise you are effectively just listing a bunch of stuff, and I don’t perceive much value in that for the reader.

Mistakes

I goofed, a little. First – I incorrectly copied the link to Mark Catchlove’s blog post into the Carnival, so when you clicked on him, you ended up in the ether. Sukh Pabial was kind enough to contact me with the news and courtesy of the WordPress app, I was able to fix this error on the train back from Reading yesterday. Second – I made an omission. Susan Heathfield submitted a contribution titled ‘Never Tell HR These 10 Things’ and although it was past the deadline, I forgot to include it. Sorry Susan. I think these errors arose as a result of the amount of time it took me to get the whole thing done so I think that by tending to the deadline dilemma above, then time, and possible mistakes may be easier to work with and iron out.

I hope this reflection helps you in your blogging endeavours. Thanks again to the contributors and readers, see you at the next Carnival town.

photo credit