Here's something interesting I came across today.
I was spending time on
LinkedIn looking at the contacts which LinkedIn recommended I connect with, based on a client I connected with today. Yes, there are some people out there who actually do this.
I'll be honest, here's how I've used LinkedIn in the past:
- to keep track of people I had a nice conversation with, so that if I have an opportunity to connect them with someone else, I can find them (and their picture).
- to keep track of emails with people
- to share articles and links
- to showcase Tangible Words' recommendations of work
- to have a place for my CV for credibility of work (my publications, education, knowledge)
Lately, however,I've been finding more use with LI because we've created a content strategy around the use of LI:
- I've been sharing daily updates of our publications and topics that interest my target audience. I've found that people are interacting with our shared articles and I'm seeing metrics on the levels of value we're sharing with our target audience.
- I've been reconnecting by using updates from people I haven't talked to in a while in Australia, Toronto, Ottawa, Kingston and Belleville. Wondering how they're doing, I see what they've been up to, who they've worked with, and whether they have recently re-branded so I know how to better recommend them. I also look at who they're now connected to and ask for introductions to people.
- I've been asking for help in groups on topics I don't know very much about yet, like networking groups in Ottawa.
- I've been finding events to attend and participate in, in Toronto and Ottawa.
- I've been participating in discussions in groups.
- I've been endorsing people I really think have great skills but whom I haven't found a way to work with yet.
- I've been emailing and building relationships with people who looked at my profile to find out what we really have in common, and I've been discovering prospects along the way.
Phewf. It's taken up a lot of time, that's true, but it's also give me some interesting opportunities for letting more people know about Tangible Words, and for connecting other people together more meaningfully.
However, today I went to connect with someone who is in Government in Ottawa.
There's not a lot of use in LI for people who work in government. In fact, clearly LI is a bit of a torment to these people because they derive so little value from LI, this particular guy had a message under Advice For Contacting him: "PLEASE do not contact me. I don't want this account. I can't seem to delete it."
And I thought: Huh. That sucks. I wonder if he just doesn't know how to delete his account. I could probably find a way to help him. I bet I can find better instructions, and send him an email with instructions on how to delete his account.
Wow. What a can of worms.
My Search To Discover How To Delete a LI Account:
The first hit in my search "delete LI account" was a post from LI support, telling us how to close the account with simple instructions. It had a recent date, so these must be the most current instructions.
But the next 3 major hit lists from Google were all nasty posts criticizing LI for the difficulty in deleting their service--detailed with pictures and extreme exasperation from multiple users who find LI very difficult to close and not very transparent in their processes.
I became very nervous for my poor friend in government. It didn't look like I was going to be sending him that email today. So I thought I'd write this post instead because here we have a
VERY interesting example of content marketing. Everyone is always afraid of their company receiving bad reviews online. They're scared of interacting too much because they might be publicly criticized.
However we've taken the point of view--that you'd better get out there and start talking online because just like school kids talking about their teachers, they're going to talk about you anyway, so you might as well participate in the conversation.
My Question To You About Content Marketing:
So I ask you: would it not have been a wonderful customer service opportunity for LI to update their "recently reviewed" How To Close Your LI Account Post with the message, "we know in the past it's been difficult to close your account, we're sorry, try these instructions" ?
What do you think?
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