Breaking Up Is So Easy To Do Online
A friend (let's call her
Meg) shared with me her story of how she experienced a LinkedIn breakup a few
years ago...
Lamenting her recent
demotion, she attended a networking event for an industry that she was thinking
about moving to. Armed with an elevator speech and a smile, she literally met
someone in the elevator going to the same event. They were fast friends, and inseparable
the entire evening. Throughout the evening the woman repeatedly told Meg to "be
sure to" connect with her on LinkedIn, she was 'very well connected' and would
be happy to introduce her to anyone she knew that might be able to assist Meg.
At the end of the night
the lovely young lady handed Meg her business card, Meg connected with her on
LinkedIn the very next morning and she accepted immediately. However later that
day, when Meg searched for her new connection, she couldn't find her listed in
her contacts. When she did a manual search for the young lady, she was suddenly
out of her network!
Since the DE-LINKING, as
we affectionately refer to the event, Meg found the courage to switch
industries, and still has yet to see or hear from the friendly lady she met
that evening. But this isn't a story about Meg, it's a story about the
anonymous lady who removed Meg from her network almost as quickly as she added
her. There are plenty of reasons to no longer associate with LinkedIn
connections, group members and employees-here goes:
I'm sorry...have we met? I...I think this was a
mistake...
Perhaps like Meg's
one-night stand, you connected with someone that you didn't really want to. Or
like Meg herself, you are no longer interested in your former supervisor's new
connections, especially if one of them is the new YOU. Surreptitiously removing
LinkedIn connections is almost too easy and can be done en masse.
1.
At the top of
your homepage, click Contacts.
2.
On the upper
right side of the page, click Remove
Connections
3.
Select the
connections you want to remove
4.
Click Remove Connections
Et voila! Your connections
will never know you removed them as a connection - unless you surprisingly
appear in their "People You May Know" column. But by then you'll be out of
dodge! And if you perhaps made a mistake and are interested in getting back
together-you are in control, as the person that breaks the connection is the
only one that can reinitiate a connection.
Hey-do you need a job? Know someone that needs a
job? How 'bout a medical procedure overseas? I’m not going to stop asking...ever!
Spambots have infiltrated
LinkedIn-with fake names, companies, connections and profiles. They post random
links every day - offering jobs "just for
members of your group" or if you have a really bad spambot, they post hourly.
Why? Who knows-some people just have too much time on their hands. But, as the owner
or manager of a group, you have the power to fight the evil spambots! LinkedIn
makes it easy:
1.
On your
homepage, click Groups.
2.
Click on the
group name
3.
Click the Manage tab
4.
Click Participants on the left pane, and then
click the Members tab
5.
Select the
member you want to remove
6.
Click Remove, Block or Block & Delete
Here is a table to help you determine the best option for your group:
Remove
|
Block
|
Block
& Delete
|
|
Member Removed from
Group
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Member's Past
Contributions Deleted
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Member can request to
join group again
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
Also, keep in mind if you
click Unblock & Remove from the
Blocked tab, the member will be removed from the group, their past
contributions will be deleted, but they can request to join the group again.
You are the weakest link...goodbye...
Uninviting former
employees from your company page requires LinkedIn to get involved. For better
or worse, you can not unceremoniously delete someone from your company page.
According to LinkedIn: "you can ask us to remove someone from your Company Page
if they don't work at your company or have never worked at your company." You
must provide their full name, the link to their profile and explain why they
should be removed.
And by the way...in case
you're wondering, Meg continues to live happily ever after.
No comments:
Post a Comment