If you're on LinkedIn, (you must be because you're looking at this!) you've definitely got one of those emails offering you a trial of LinkedIn Premium. I didn't really jump at it because I was apprehensive about providing credit card information. But one fine day, I decided to go ahead. I used one of my cards that would expire soon, and signed up. Yeah, you can call me a little paranoid about signing blank checks. They promised to remind me before my card would be charged. I didn't take any chances and set up my own reminder. To be fair, they did send an email to ask if I was continuing. But I had already cancelled by then.
And here's why.
Value: There's simply not enough of it.
Opportunity costs are just too high. For example, an unlimited 25MBPS internet package costs only Rs. 1350, where I live. What do I get for Rs. 1400?
Ability to contact anyone by in mail.
Meh! I'd need to find them first. See point below about LinkedIn Search.
Ability to see detailed ranking by profile view.
You can not just see your position and a few people above and below, but you see the entire list.
If you are the kind of person who is delighted to have higher profile views on Linkedin than your boss or your CEO, you might find this interesting. But it's still not worth the monthly contribution. Not even close. As a free user, you already have some information on where you are placed. I'm yet to come across someone who got hired simply because of high profile views ;)
Still not worth it.
Ability to see how you compare with others who have applied for the same job.
(It basically shows you what skills you lack as compared to the others who have applied.) Again, this is entirely on the data provided on Linkedin. And we know that many people don't really keep profiles updated. There are several assumptions being made here, including one that says all the candidates applying for the position will do so using LinkedIn. What you really get is an ability to see where the others are placed. So it's not really that useful. And then again, let's say you have 6 of the 10 skills that most people who are applying for the same job have. What do you do? Add those skills? Or wait for the organization to keep the position open?
So, what would I pay for?
Before I think of paying for something, there are some basics that needs to be put in place. Here are a few
- The ability to comment on an article/post/video without making it appear on my feed. There are these dumb posts that are just a waste of time. Someone in my circle comments their dislike, and they only seem to be stroking the fire. Instead of ignoring such no value content, they inadvertently end up sharing it with their entire circle of contacts! There should be a way to let only the person who posted - know. But that's not what happens. And usually, it's not what was intended by the person responsible for getting that information in my feed.
- An ability to NOT see posts that I've already seen once on my feed - irrespective of who posts it. If I've seen the post, it could be a video or any link I've clicked on in the last 3 or 6 months, I don't want some one who's slow on social media to get stuff back on my feed, because that's the first time he/she has seen it! Imagine how much time that would save me.
OR
Maybe we need a LinkedIn mouse. One that helps me capitalize on all the unnecessary scrolling. As you scroll, the mouse enables a dynamo on the scroll wheel so that I'm at least generating energy with all that useless scrolling! (Zukerberg, this one is for you as well)
- I might pay to see who has viewed my posts. Not just total numbers, but faces and links to profiles - just like they are trying to do with comments and likes. Why try? Because it's still an attempt. They don't show you the entire list!
- Another thing that doesn't make sense is the order in which they arrange the list of people who liked or commented on your article. Chronological would make sense. But right now, there's no logic in how it is being displayed. It's not chronological, not alphabetical. It doesn't even show all the people who liked the article! I actually counted each like and it didn't match the total likes displayed on the post.
- I'd expect better support. I'd written to LinkedIn about the issue mismatch in data above. And they took about 3 emails just to understand the issue! And understanding the issue didn't really help because they had no clue what could fix it. Or by when. Still an open issue. Don't believe me? If you have a post that went viral (like this post of mine) and has hundreds of likes, check the statistics.
- And then there's the ability to edit a comment. If you make a mistake, you have to delete the comment and then write it again. Zuckerberg got this one right :)
- When you are in the middle of something and have typed out a paragraph as a comment, and you get distracted and move up or down the page and then try to navigate away from the page... there's no prompt that your work will be lost. Click something and it just goes to that place, and you lose your work in the process.
- LinkedIn search is miserable. 9 out of 10 times, I'm able to find a link to a profile using google search than from using LinkedIn's own search. It should be the other way right?
LinkedIn isn't very social if you don't pay. Think about it. It's a social media platform that should enable people to connect to each other. But in reality, you wonder if they want people to connect to each other, OR if they are trying to keep as many people apart!
What they seem to be forgetting is that I can reach out to anyone I want to. If the information is not on LinkedIn, there's always GOOGLE!
So can you get more linked in per LinkedIn? Perhaps. They do come back with a 50% discount offer after your trial. But I figured they need to fix some basics before they get any money from me.
If you have used the premium version, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Even otherwise, do comment :)
Disclaimer: I'm not reviewing LinkedIn Premium as a business user. I'm doing so as an individual employee.