I am sure everyone has been on either of the sides or on both: your ex boyfriend/girlfriend, colleague, neighbor, a guy you met at a conference of washing machine producers where you got by mistake or just someone who you let in the list of your "friends", gets a reminder of your birthday/anniversary, whatever, and he is just a click away of challenging your birthday with a guilt complex. I don't know if you know, sorry for tautology, that I have 5670 connections in LinkedIn and some 1,500 or more on Facebook. Don't take me wrong- I am very grateful to LinkedIn who has put us together and people who have entrusted me with their friend status. Moreover, these are mostly carefully enough selected network connections.
I have not met most of them, but there are reasons why I the majority of cases think their accounts are not fictitious and there is a logic why we may be useful to each other. Some of them I really had business or worked with.
Apparently LinkedIn and Facebook want me to stay close to my LinkedIn friends and would therefore remind them about my birthday. Okay, I actually need this day for my family and for myself, so when I get a 100 of birthday messages this day I survive them easily- this day should not be about the work anyway. On top of that it is nice that someone is interested in you enough to click on a LinkedIn pre-arranged message. Again, don't take me wrong: I am grateful. In all fairness, Facebook knows the limits and does not bug you on your anniversary of last job renewal.
LinkedIn though raises to a challenge of a business network distinguishing. Some time ago, LinkedIn has started to offer me to congratulate people with their new appointments, and I would do it, from time to time. To my then surprise I would sometimes be getting comments that these people only changed a letter in the name or amended their title or sometimes pleading me to not to congratulate them again. This way you show a lack of interest to their LinkedIn career moves..., but this feeling works both ways, right? A shadow of an embarrassment belongs to the two who tango- it's an "I know that you know" thing.
I gather all this was not enough and LinkedIn has gone beyond. Now the anniversary celebration is going to be a hard day. My anniversary is right next after my birthday, so I know. A day on which hundreds of people would need to congratulate you with your anniversary pretty much without checking who you are on your page. Because this is what happens: they actually do not visit your page when they "hope you are doing well". Oops. More embarrassment, dear LinkedIn.
I am writing this and thinking that I am still pretty much confident in the future of LinkedIn- it is a universal CVs database and a quick WHO IS WHO guide with an ability to go beyond when needed, so it is okay, I love it as such, but when I think of upcoming Roch Hashana, then Halloween, Black Friday and I think what if these smart marketing people in LinkedIn may decide to promote our contacts these days too and I could get TPed with hundreds of emails again so soon, I shiver- I am too sober for this and Facebook, thank you for not caring too much about my business life.
What do you think?