You may not be familiar with the term FOMO. FOMO = Fear of Missing Out. I’ve had several people in my life with this condition. My dog even has FOMO tendencies.
Think about that one friend who’s always like, “What were y’all talking about?” Or, “You went to brunch without me?!” Or calls incessantly trying to figure out what the “group plans” for the weekend are.
It’s not attractive. So when I started having FOMO feelings regarding LinkedIn, I took action.
Admitting You Have FOMO
The first step is always the hardest. There are many talks on Facebook or on the #CollectiveChat about LinkedIn and how to be better, how to attract more leads, etc., and I find myself feeling guilty.
I was guilty because while building a business LinkedIn moved from the top of my list to somewhere near the middle to bottom. I instantly had fear that I was missing out on crazy amounts of business or an influx of leads.
In essence, I had FOMO every time the word LinkedIn was muttered.
Start With Groups
After assessing the situation, I found that I was not networking in my 30+ groups. How on earth was I going to network on LinkedIn, plus do everything else when there were 30 groups to work with?
I looked at each group carefully and truth be told – I’m not even sure why I joined some of them! The conversations, if they can be called that, were mostly spam links leading to sales pages or blogs that were all about self-promotion. GAG.
I now have a still sizable 12 groups; a much easier number to manage.
Make Careful Connections
There are some people who don’t connect with others on LinkedIn unless they “know” them. I don’t take this stance since I’m there to network. It’s stilly to go to a networking event and only talk to people you know, so why do it on LinkedIn?
Then there are FOMOs who rush out to connect with EVERYONE.
I take more caution in connecting. I do a profile check, I see how we’re connected, and THEN I make a decision. That doesn’t always save you, though.
I got this email from someone I connected to (who was also connected to a friend):
Oh geez! You mean to tell me I’ve been busting my arse when I have 9.87 million pounds waiting for me?!
[Insert GIANT eye roll here]You can never be too careful.
Make sure you report these messages as SPAM, report the user and disconnect with them.
If you don’t, you’re allowing them to keep cluttering our social spaces with spam and misinformation.
Here’s a little advice on disconnecting from our friend Kerry, a former writer for the SSC.
Think Conversation
It’s easy to revert to our tagline, but it really is about the conversation more than the connection. A few tips to keeping in the normal ranges of being LinkedIn savvy:
- Send personal invitations to connect
- Give personality to your profile (DO NOT use that sterile bio from the corporate website)
- Use an appropriate picture (having NO picture is the same as that bikini pic – DON’T do it!)
- And please, for the love of all things that are GOOD about social media, DO NOT spam people with your info unless warranted
With that, I hope you rid yourself of any FOMO tendencies you have lingering about. I did. And it feels GREAT!
See you in the social sphere!
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8 Comments. Leave new
LinkedIn is of value to me and I approach it as it was originally intended to be used. However, with a need to capture market share they struck out on a course to compete with mainstream social sites. Sadly that has allowed the creep of spam and other non-proffesional proliferations. I have found that many of the groups I belonged to became a pitch-farm and not of idea exchange or guidance so I have terminated most of my participation. I remain in those that bring the intent of colleague exchange and interaction. BTW, the new LI contacts app is rock solid!
Thanks for popping in, Randy! I value LinkedIn immensely – which is probably why I got so bent out of shape and started suffering from FOMO. We’ve gotten several leads and a referral from LinkedIn … it’s no joke! (And is closing more deals for us than any other social site)
I totally agree with you on the Groups. It was very easy to slash more than half of my Groups because of the spam, sales pitches and answering of legit questions with, “My company, XYZ, can definitely help you with that!” instead of really trying to solve the problem.
And yeah – LOVE’N the new Contacts app!! 🙂
I too have gained more contacts via LI than any other site, valuable to me!
Woot!
Well thank you mightily for the mention! This is a great piece, Brooke. Whether we’re talking Linkedin or any other platform the key message is that we have this FOMO-fueled idea that we have to be everywhere to make quality connections.
I cry foul! We don’t what we need to do is go deeper into the connections we value and to focus our tiny attention spans for longer than 2 seconds!. A sales funnel is not born overnight and it’s not successful with only surface level attention.
You’re so welcome! I loved that article … loved the list with titles … “The Boot” (hee hee). Sometimes we have to give peeps the boot (as I mentioned above).
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. If we try less for talking to 8,000 people on Twitter, FB, LI and G+ and focus more on a handful of influencers from each site, we’d do much better. FOMO is ugly personally and professionally and we’d all be better for giving it the boot! 😉
Good stuff Brooke – nice (creepy) graphic, too. LinkedIn has become the “red-headed step child” to me lately…I often neglect it and then feel guilty. This was a good reminder for me.
Thanks, Carrie! I think we all (some secretly and some are okay with talking about it) get FOMO with our sites. G+ and LinkedIn used to be easier to forget, but with all of the Facebook snafus it seems we might want to formulate a plan for ALL sites!