Last month LinkedIn asked me to update my profile. I did so, and the next day got a flood of emails congratulating me on my new position, as “copywriter” at a client I haven’t worked for since 2014. One person was miffed because I had recently told her I had no availability for new work… so why was I now going on staff for the other guys? This is similar to another “update” a year or two ago when I was announced as the new creative director of an agency… at which point another agency client said they could no longer work with me, now that I was employed by a competitor.
I don’t know what is going on with these bogus announcements… why LinkedIn does them and how it is of benefit to anyone. Obviously LinkedIn has little use for freelancers since its primary role is to bring individuals and employers together. Maybe there is an algorithm to deliberately sabotage us?
Anyway, the solution seems simple enough. Anytime LinkedIn asked you to do something… ignore them.
P.S. One of my contacts who works in database management put it well when I told her the announcement was bogus: “I was wondering about that, and that’s the downside of data driven triggered communications, when the business rules are not fully vetted or not taking in consideration outliers and exceptions.”