Thursday, September 25, 2014

Self-Centered LinkedIn Invitation

I got an email from LinkedIn. It is an invitation to participate in a research study.

Opening with a smile, I read it. But I was disappointed after reading the mail. It was so badly written you would not believe it was from coming a world-known company like LinkedIn. Instead, it read like a high school student asking for help.

In a nutshell, this email was asking the recipient to participate in a survey and LinkedIn would compile the data for sale, advertisement, internal use, etc.

So what is wrong? Here are a few to start with:
  • No credit given: you are just treated as a white mouse. Sure, privacy concerns, but you could ask me if I want to be anonymous, no?
  • Condescending question: "We have a few qualifying questions to confirm your eligibility", well, if you doubt my qualifications, why sent me the invitation in the first place?
  • No rewards, No Sharing: The very least LinkedIn should do is to share the result of this survey with the participant for the time spent after the result is out. But this is never mentioned.
  • Short time notice: Invitation expires in two days. Are you kidding me? Definitely it is doable, but if it targets the group of middle level executives, one week is the minimum because most of us will have some spare time over the weekend.
 Essentially, this email fails to convince the reader why we should complete the survey. This survey is void of any motivation for reader to participate.

 In fact, this piece of email does a disservice to LinkedIn and also to the companies that pay it for research. In my view the person responsible should be fired due to utter incompetency.