"I was only saying the same things as my friends who work here, I just hit enter and went for lunch. I deleted it straight away, but my boss didn't see that as proper apology".
It's only a matter of time before Anderson Cooper announces the sad but true 'sign of the times' faux pas....A sorry tale of the poor Gen Z multitasking intern who inadvertently announced on Linked In (while also auto posting on their blog, and twitter feed) their hatred of their employer, boss and leadership using sms profanity of the most vulgarity ......
No, not a deleted Facebook movie scene, but an observation of Linked In. A once simple, uncluttered and intuitive professional networking platform that is transforming into a business social network. Now filled with a landscape full of dashboards, ads, and tabs, and peppered with likes, comments, pictures (of babies ..perhaps) and youtube videos.
Is the brand manoeuvring its way into future convergence with the hyper-stimulated, hyper-sticky, informational super-channel-esque - Facebook behemoth ? Fiction ? Melodrama ?....Partial truth ? Irrelevant ! As user numbers continue to increase and embrace the new experience, the business led by Jeff Weiner is an indellible disruptive force heading for an IPO.
As I write this post, ad agency planners the world over are scheming to uncover killer insights, brand managers vy to launch their first hybrid campaign, and media mavens are seeding content amongst the most coveted 'sociopro' influencers......
I used to love Linked In as I knew exactly why I was there, what I was going to do and how long I was going to spend there. Yet the online version look and feel changes, added features, and constant refreshes echo the rhythm of Facebook, and I sense its now too late for them to dial back. My only solace is the Iphone version - (the app development team are genius architects for mobile).
Failure to understand their brand equity and user base may lead to the creation of a 'Bring back old Linked In' group. Start to worry if a cut the rope 'corporate ladder edition' replaces the 'People you may know' section......
PS, while the opening quotation is currently fictitious, I sadly predict to see it reported true pretty soon.
