Is LinkedIn the new Tinder or Facebook? 7 things no one wants to see
Social media has aways been a challenge to navigate. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and so on. But when you think LinkedIn, you (usually) think work. A job. A career. Definitely not Tinder, we hope.
Now, with updates flowing in almost every other month and settings changing on LinkedIn, enough times for you to forget what the app actually looks like, it's easy to mess up or break rules more times than you would realise.
Just like any other social setting, social media apps also have an etiquette to follow - something users tend to forget more often than usual. Particularly on LinkedIn. Known to be a platform primarily used for professional networking and career development, LinkedIn users tend to forget that the platform was built only to connect with professional contacts, ex-colleagues, find jobs or keep up with industry insights and updates.
Users have now begun to post on LinkedIn exactly as they post on other social media pages such as Facebook and Instagram, much to others' ire. Sometimes, people go a step ahead and also think of LinkedIn as the new Tinder.
Here are 7 things that people post on LinkedIn that make us think, 'Wait, I did open LinkedIn, right?':
1. UNPROFESSIONAL MESSAGES
First things first. LinkedIn is not Tinder or Bumble (even though Bumble can help you connect with folks for 'business'). Maybe the biggest reason behind LinkedIn users' annoyance is receiving unprofessional messages. Messages such as 'looking awesome', 'how are you dear', 'hy dr nyc pic' and 'what is your number' are not only extremely unprofessional, but also make LinkedIn unsafe for other users.
Here is one such example:
2. INSTAGRAM PHOTOS
Some users tend to get confused between their Instagram and LinkedIn, which then results in them posting personal Instagram photos on the professional network. By posting pictures from their personal life on LinkedIn, users lose connections and fail to conform to LinkedIn's actual motto.
Check out this user's 'selfie' that made it to our LinkedIn feed:
3. PERSONAL LIFE UPDATES
Personal life updates are quite distinct from professional life updates. A new job or completion of a project does qualify as a professional update, but getting married or pregnancy announcements do not make the cut. A new haircut or a new record on the Apple Watch may seem like huge achievements to some, but do not necessarily qualify as LinkedIn updates.
While this user's update is a happy update and would not 'annoy' anyone, it is still unprofessional to post such updates:
Photo: LinkedIn
4. TWITTER THOUGHTS
Ah, Twitter! The social media app where you can simply write down your innermost thoughts and someone in the world would possibly relate and respond to your tweet. But LinkedIn users seem to not only be confused on where to post Instagram selfies, but also where to post their Twitter thoughts.
Case in point, this particular post made on LinkedIn:
5. MULTIPLE CONNECTION REQUESTS
No. No. No. This is not Facebook where you can 'poke' people to remind them of your presence. Or as millennials would say, to flirt with your crush. When you send multiple requests to a person, this is the sort of a reminder the other person gets from LinkedIn:
and no one likes receiving emails like these!
6. WHAT IS YOUR WORDLE SCORE?
And the answer to that question is, we don't want to know. Especially on LinkedIn. Wordle allows you to share your personal Wordle score on multiple social media apps; so why choose LinkedIn? Especially if you didn't get the answer right in the first or second try.
Presenting, Exhibit A:
7. CRINGEY MARKETING TACTICS
We know you didn't have that super-enlightening conversation with a stranger on the street a day ago. And we know that you didn't meet your interviewer unknowingly in the street and helped them. So, when users use such stories to market their products/companies they work for, it makes everyone else on the platform massively cringe.
Here is one such instance:
Here's hoping people begin to re-think what they post on LinkedIn.