How LinkedIn is Not Facebook or Twitter

Of late, I've noticed that quite a lot of people use LinkedIn for posting personal pictures and updating their personal statuses. Not only that, some people update jokes as their statuses, share funny quotes and integrate Facebook and Twitter with LinkedIn.

A new trend - random people try to add you on LinkedIn and then send across a message asking if you would like to be a friend or share numbers!

Though it is a social platform, LinkedIn is NOT Facebook or Twitter.

People use Facebook to share their personal updates, pictures, plans, events, etc. Here of course, when you share statuses, the number is invariably low as compared to that of Twitter.

Twitter, on the other hand, is a platform where your quantity and quality completely depends on your mood. Quantity is not an issue here, as people generally follow a lot of other people and your real-time tweets may even go unnoticed by your followers.

Please understand that LinkedIn is quite different and one cannot use it like Facebook. I would be least interested in a status on LinkedIn which says “Hey I’m having a cup of coffee, does anyone want a sip?”

So, how different is LinkedIn from Facebook and Twitter? As many of us already know, LinkedIn is purely used by most of us for professional purpose.

I know that all of us are not hunting for a job out there at LinkedIn but if we are using LinkedIn shouldn't we be doing it the right way?

How do we get started and save LinkedIn from becoming the new Facebook?

• Make sure you have an updated profile.
• Add skills to your profile, endorse others and get endorsed.
• Write recommendations for people you have worked with.
• Share a link to your website on your profile.
• Do not Integrate Facebook or Twitter with LinkedIn (A person who tweets regularly doesn't keep track of how many times he tweets in a day, we don’t want to spam people’s timeline with our updates right?).
• Avoid spamming people’s inboxes with 'Mujhse fraandship karoge?' messages or asking for jobs.
• The best place to share personal status will be Facebook and Twitter; LinkedIn is not for personal statuses. However, if you write articles and want to share it with people you should definitely share it on LinkedIn.
• Abstain from integrating all your accounts together on an application (for example, a 'Good Morning' status or a cricket update would go well with Twitter but not on LinkedIn or Facebook).
• For LinkedIn - 'It’s the quality that matters, not the quantity'!

I'd love to know what you think. Do share your thoughts.