Did you receive an email from LinkedIn on October 2nd about a class action lawsuit? Most emails listing you as a possible claimant in a multi-million dollar settlement are phishing scams—but believe it or not, this one is real. Here’s what happened and what this means for LinkedIn.
Context and Conflict
To understand the lawsuit, we have to explain some of the features of LinkedIn, in particular its “import your address book” feature.
In order to take full advantage of LinkedIn as a professional social media platform, you need a decent number of “connections”—people you know and associate with on a professional basis. The more connections you have, the more possible job openings, information, and support you can take advantage of.
When you first sign up for a LinkedIn account—and periodically after that—LinkedIn allows you to send a connection request from your account to your entire electronic address book. On the surface, the function seems like a great idea. Importing your contacts allows you to find professional peers you already have a relationship with quickly and easily.
On the other hand, LinkedIn’s algorithm doesn’t account for age or quality of the contacts within the address book. You’ll quickly find that your account not only requested to connect with your company president and manager, but with the plumber you called once for a home repair and every cold lead you’ve ever tried to pursue.
These people will not know who you are, and will report you as a spammer by telling LinkedIn that they “don’t know this person” when they reject your connection request. Enough “I don’t know” reports, and you’ll be banned from sending out new connection requests for as long as half a year.
That’s generally been the big reason why LinkedIn experts don’t recommend you use the “add connections from address book” feature, but the lawsuit has revealed that there’s another reason why you shouldn’t use the feature. Past the initial connection request, LinkedIn would also send two “reminder emails” to contacts who hadn’t responded to the first request—truly spamming the contacts in the address book holder’s name.
Thus sparked the class action lawsuit brought against LinkedIn for the reputational and professional damage this feature has caused, on behalf of everyone who might’ve used this feature and accidentally spammed their contacts (remembered or forgotten). If you created a LinkedIn account between September 17, 2011, and October 31, 2014, you received the emailed notification of settlement. (Ironic that the notice was an email, considering the reason for the lawsuit!)
Where does that leave us?
Not much has or will change on LinkedIn’s end. If you try to use the “Add Connections from Address Book” feature now, you’ll receive a warning that the system will send out a total of three messages to those in your address book: the initial connection request and two reminders. (We wouldn’t be surprised if the reminder emails were eliminated entirely in the near future, thanks to the lawsuit.)
If you used the feature and have proof that you were punished in some way due to the multiple emails—being blacklisted as a spammer, for example, or annoyed emails from pestered contacts—you could request compensation from the settlement pool by following the directions on the official settlement website.
LinkedIn’s reputation as the place to be if you’re a professional hasn’t shifted due to the announcement, and we still recommend using the platform as a peer-to-peer network within a professional context. While the lawsuit was certainly a slap in the face for LinkedIn, it’s important to remember that social media as an industry is only fifteen years old. As powerful a tool as it is, we’re still working out all the kinks in using it responsibly.
Do you understand the power of online peer networks like LinkedIn, but feel intimidated by the scale of the site? Have you poked around the various profile pages and search functions, but wish you knew what was important and what should be left behind? Join us on December 16 for our webinar, Professionalize Your LinkedIn Presence: Why and How. Our presentation will focus on the basics of establishing your professional LinkedIn persona—with time at the end for any lingering questions or concerns.
Additional ISM resources:
The Source for Private School News Vol. 14 No. 4 LinkedIn for Administrators, Part One: Spruce Up Your Profile
The Source for Private School News Vol. 14 No. 7 LinkedIn for Administrators, Part Two: Your Activity Wall
Additional ISM resources for Gold Consortium members:
I&P Vol. 40 No. 10 Marketing Communications and the Student
I&P Vol. 34 No. 10 Professional Development During Hard Economic Times
