Aneta Bereda's dashboard

Benjamin Franklin is my guess, Luke. I also guess that since it will all be hermetic, there will be fees associated to Groups. I am a small business in Poland. There is no physical office here for me to make a payment here and I have no way to electronically do it either. My New Business group list is coming off LinkedIn this morning because it is too vital to me to let it be held hostage to an uncertain future. It may also be time to move but I will prepare and wait for the collapse of LI before doing it. As I have prognosticated - this has much to do with configuring LI to work more closely with Microsoft. – Aneta Bereda, on August 22, 2008 05:16

@Luke

When it's not Linux.... :-)

That is why the crisis now. From where I sit and read about this whole fiasco, the whole Groups feature was scrapped probably because it was incompatible with Microsoft's objectives. We are looking at a whole new program being rolled out piece by piece with great big glaring gaps in between, not improvements. The sort by date function wasn't cut; the new program does not have it. Uploads of contacts were not simplified but rationalized to fit a Microsoft platform objective. LinkedIn will sell Microsoft as the platform of choice. At least that is how I read LinkedIn's posture, interpret the losses to functionality. – Aneta Bereda, on August 20, 2008 21:31

One word: Microsoft. It's not about enhancing usability or even improving existing features. It is about making Microsoft indispensible within the LI environment. It's about OS not CS. – Aneta Bereda, on August 20, 2008 21:22

I really understand your point of view, Christina. I have read through this topic and I see what you are saying, understand your powerlessness, and appreciate your affirmations. As a person, you care and I do so much appreciate it.

The situation sucks for us on both sides. – Aneta Bereda, on August 20, 2008 21:20

Ditto. We do public relations. Relationships matter. It's not a marketing issue. It's a relationship problem. It's about control. – Aneta Bereda, on August 20, 2008 21:18

Written like a true public relations expert! Excellent post. Great point. This would solve the problem is you were able to affect policy at LinkedIn.

My heart goes out to the kind hearted and sincere employees (like Christina) caught in the cross fire of this issue. – Aneta Bereda, on August 20, 2008 21:14

New members are not showing a "joined on date."

Is there going to be a problem because of this? Are new members not OFFICIAL yet? Will they be lost when this problem is finally fixed?

HELLO EVERYONE READING THIS.

Please post your opinion on my question:
[b] Is LinkedIn's Recent Problems Linked to PR Categorized as Marketing Function? [/b]

Since we are here to not only complain but to find a solution, I suggest posting on LinkedIn itself -- thus notifying our LinkedIn networkwe are are of the problem -- might be as good an idea as posting here.

How long will it take to notify 1 million connections?

This link will take you directly to my question on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/marke...

Yes. I am afraid of my data too. I wonder how much will ultimately be lost. You have a good suggestion! – Aneta Bereda, on August 20, 2008 13:35

"Whether we pay or not, group adminstrators are some of the most dedicated Linkedin users. Why treat them so poorly?"

According to LI it is a marketing issue. And marketing has different objectives than the communication we all want. (Notice that the marketing threat about negative WOW on other social websites got a response but nothing more.) – Aneta Bereda, on August 20, 2008 13:33

Oh yeah, one more related thing that leaves me feeling VERY UNCOMFORTABLE: I joined my group today. Alot of group owners joined their groups today too.

I am carefully writing this step-by-step so LinkedIn will *see* the problem. Others may have it too. I am worried about losing my group information - which will cost me my new business development efforts on LinkedIn for this quarter. (September 2008)

I have 3 new members today. The new members only show up when I look at their individual profiles. The logo is there and we share the group.

At the "My Groups" page, when I choose "manage", I do not see the new members included in the group. I see a number that is 3 less than the total number of members. (the lag is in recognizing today's the new members)

I can see these new members (all members) when I choose "members" and I get a listing. Everyone is there.

I still show the 1 that was requesting entry on the " requests to join" page. However, the number of requests to join has subtracted this person from the whole. (Clicking on "requests to join," I see the new member still requesting to join but this person is not counted in the number of requests.)

Pre-approved members show members who have joined. I lost all of these names and had to re-input them over the weekend. To be honest, I am not sure how the pre-approved members feature works (and no one explains it). Should pre-approved members remain pre-approved after they convert to members?

========= My fear
I have asked a few business friends to join because they fit the profile. They have not so far. Okay, I could be paranoid because these are busy people but they would join simply because I asked them and they are helpful. I asked them over a week ago. I really do not want to be perceived as begging for members from anyone - that is not a comfortable image.

Did they join but get erased? Are they blocked by some technical glitch? Is LinkedIn somehow to blame for their lack of membership? (I wonder what they would say if/when I ask them about it down the road?)

Will the new members today get erased from the group before this upgrade is fixed or, finally, downgraded? What will happen to changes since the last back-up when the last back-up is restored?

=========I think there is an aweful lot of fear being expressed in this topic some of it hidden in fancy terms like the writer knows what's going on and some of us admitting we haven't a clue and have fear. What is LinkedIn's response to our fear?

Facebook has a _very_good_ PR firm handling their relationships.

LI appears to lump PR into marketing - so, no relationship matters unless it is built on sales architecture.

Please see what I mean (even if you are NOT a PR, just skim through it):
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/marke...

"If what you said is not just public relations BS..."
Working in public relations, I have to point out that every company has public relations, which are a corporation's relationships with the public. People have personal relations and professional relations much the same as organizations (non-profit, for-profit, charities, etc) have public relations/affairs.

LinkedIn, therefore has and will continue to have "public relations" until they cease to have employees and customers. At that point, LinkedIn will revert to a failing sole proprietorship.

So public relations (accounting, dentistry, etc) is not - cannot be - BS. Beyond "perception," PR is a reality all can observe. Poorly managed or dysfunctional public relations based on secrecy, lies or abuse of some form is the "BS" you are referring rather than the function of public relations.

This poor public relations is observable, measureable and impacts cutomer relationships. What is observable in this issue is not merely "BS" but a failure in the company's implicit/explicit relationship to us. – Aneta Bereda, on August 19, 2008 07:01

"If what you said is not just public relations BS..."
>>>Working in public relations, I have to point out that every company has public relations, which are a corporation's relationships with the public. People have personal relations and professional relations much the same as organizations (non-profit, for-profit, charities, etc) have public relations/affairs.

>>>LinkedIn, therefore has and will continue to have "public relations" until they cease to have employees and customers. At that point, LinkedIn will revert to a failing sole proprietorship.

>>>So public relations (accounting, dentistry, etc) is not - cannot be - BS. Beyond "perception," PR is a reality all can observe. Poorly managed or dysfunctional public relations based on secrecy, lies or abuse of some form is the "BS" you are referring rather than the function of public relations.

>>>Poor public relations is observable, measureable and impacts cutomer relationships. What is observable in this issue is not merely "BS" but a failure in the company's implicit/explicit relationship to us.<<< – Aneta Bereda, on August 19, 2008 07:01

Post Script to the sort by date function:
Within a Group - especially a group that is created to fish for NEW business - I have NO NEED for an alphabetical listing automatically sorted according to connected position: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, group. The intention is to attract to such a group members who fit the target profile (not Steven Burda - haha) and convert them into satisfied customers in my first degree. A satisfied customer needs attention and understanding so there really is no antidote for looking at someone's profile in-depth where I will find the degree of connection I have with him or her.

Automatically sorting group members by degree away from me is an antithetical exercise because people connect to other people (or disconnect) and I immediately "lose track" of everyone who changes degree away from me - like shuffling a pack of cards by throwing them up in the air.

The issues of mass communication of "thank yous" and "please provide more information" and "not at this time" is another headache. I NEED to keep my professional image with the potential clients in my groups - who only have whatever contact they have with me through the group. (Not everyone is an open networker, and LinkedIn's reorganization of Group management features makes it imperative to have everyone at first degree and THEN sort into groups, which goes against the written admonition to "invite only those you know" into the first degree.)

Focus groups, or even setting up a bogus LinkedIn group, would have flagged most of the problems being reported. LinkedIn is engaging in the type of problem where I normally fish for clients. I can fix the LinkedIn communications problem – if anyone is listening over there.

They are acting like friendless know-it-all Nerds who wear pocket protectors, sport monitor-pallor tans and live in their mother's basement - an authority figure who strikes terror because she cleans up the stash of programmer magazines from under the mattress.

I do not like being someone's mother or, for that matter, being a guinea pig.

Everyone has worked all weekend to fix problems (probably why no one's priority was to read user comments until now, which is insulting IMHO) and some problems are fixed on my account:
The 1981 date is history; and
External websites are visible on group profiles;

Some features have been added:
A full business card profile on my 1st degree contacts (date of birth, etc)
Access to Group members via InMail rather than by direct email (counts against your introduction limits – so good luck if you’re a Group manager using LinkedIn for free.)

And other features are removed to my dissatisfaction:
Group Sort by date; and
Group email addresses (visible next to the member)
Group applicants’ email address: useful in mailing list/community building.

I do not use Outlook Express but keep all email on the web - where I have multi-location access 24/7 and suffer fewer security issues. Having the email address show up in Outlook is not a Microsoft twining/con-apt I appreciate or will use. I also use original Windows 98SE OS as a stable affordable platform in Poland with no budget for a non-pirate upgrading of OS. I am not the only one that will have issues as Microsoft technology gets embedded into LinkedIn.

But this is all bundled in the "lack of communication" package we have received: we have been informed of neither the good nor the bad. (These guys really need a solid PR department and a few less programmers.)

Pre-approvals were erased in a group explicitly created for new business development by my company.

None of the management functionality has been restored so far.

These changes mean LinkedIn has stopped being an online business group HUB, period. This could be a strategy of slowing growth since groups will no longer pull new users to LinkedIn.

The changes in effect are purposeful in this regard. Not a direction my new business development wants to travel.