Categories: internet

Why Connecting With Obama Will Break Your LinkedIn

I’ve lauded Senator Obama and the Obama campaign for being aggressive social media participants (adopters) in many posts on this blog. And there’s nothing wrong with a national figure having a profile on LinkedIn, whether or not it’s maintained and established by a handler/assistant.

But I will not connect with Barack Obama on LinkedIn. The reason is simple. On LinkedIn.com:

Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to thousands of qualified professionals.

LinkedIn shows you results based on how closely related you are to others based on your connections on the network. So if you connect with Obama, suddenly you are a 2nd connection from any of the hundreds (thousands?) of users connected to him. Because you and these 2nd connections likely aren’t 2 degrees separated — other than the fact that you both wanted to connect with Obama — your LinkedIn experience (should you truly use it as the networking tool that it is) will be severely diluted.

Restrain yourself and just stick to the Obama ’08 LinkedIn group if you feel the need to connect. Then again… if Obama chooses his Attorney General from within his LinkedIn pool, my argument is moot.

Postscript: on the eve of the election the Obama campaign released the below video, outlining his technology and industrial policies.

Andy Sternberg

Andy Sternberg is a digital strategist and marketing specialist with a focus on enhancing interactive and user experience through content and social media. He's been tweaking content and music-related websites since the '90s and has a Master's in Online Journalism. He's currently the head of Social & Digital Media at Rotary International. Find him on Twitter @andysternberg.

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