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LinkedIn, to follow or not follow?

September 02, 2019 11:36PM
Greetings,

As someone interested in the field, beyond mystery shopping, does it make sense to follow organizations on LinkedIn? Or, is that frowned upon? I see how that can go either way, and have not turned up enough info in searches. Any thoughts? Many Thanks,
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September 02, 2019 11:38PM
"The wisest mind has something yet to learn". ~George Santayana

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2019 11:41PM by KijohBear7.
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September 02, 2019 11:59PM
I've been on LinkedIn for a few years. It has been totally useless.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
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September 03, 2019 12:18AM
I'm also on with no real results, except I get to see my daughters active profile, and in her business it has served her well, social media is good for some, not for our industry.

Live consciously....
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September 03, 2019 12:24AM
I used it for many years for IT work, but not MS'ing. In the past 10 years or so, I've been increasingly annoyed that although my profile is private I still have random people contact me. If you do use it, I would expect a fair amount of junk.
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September 03, 2019 12:25AM
If I work as a contractor anonymously, and then follow them on LinkedIn, am I giving up my anonymity? Many companies ask me to follow them on Facebook, hence the dilemma. I would be inclined to think not. So, where do we actuallly stand on this?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2019 12:25AM by KijohBear7.
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September 03, 2019 12:28AM
Monk-N-Nut, I cannot tell you how many random CEO's have reached out to me, not for work, but to go on a date. I would laugh, but what the heck?!
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September 03, 2019 12:46AM
HonnyBrown and Irene_L.A., thanks for the feedback. My results with LinkedIn have been mixed, but I am always looking for new ways to branch out. Do you follow the MS companies you contract with?
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September 03, 2019 02:02AM
I have wondered the same thing. Just for the off chance that I want to roll my skills into something else. What, I never quite know. I imagine that I could make my account stealthy. Use a variation of my name and a professional headshot that looks nothing like my everyday. Or no picture.
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September 03, 2019 03:52AM
I don't follow any companies really, aside from the company I'm currently employed with. When it comes to mystery shopping I am connected with a handful of project managers, schedulers and other players in the mystery shopping world I've worked with though over the years who happened to request to connect with me.

Very infrequently shopping the Greater Denver Area, Colorado Springs and in-between in Colorado these days.
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September 03, 2019 04:15PM
Recently I wanted to look at the profile of two people I know. I had to sign up and now I get messages all the time that people have looked at my profile. And I could never get a look at the profiles I wanted to look at. One is a friend and the other is a lady I met at a focus group sometime back who is an actress. I just wanted to see what she has been up to, I wish I could just delete my profile and go into the site to see their profiles.
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September 03, 2019 04:40PM
ClamChatter, yes I do believe you must have a profile, but you can tweak your notification settings. I am only notified once a week of profile views, and when commenting in threads.

1cent, you would definitely want a professional picture of you. It increases your chances of being seen exponentially. Before having a picture, I would consistently get zero hits. Publishing one automatically got me at least a few hits a week.

I have networked heavily, constantly tweaking the profile per expert recommendations, and when doing so, can get about 50-80 hits a week. I usually get 12-20/week now if I do nothing interaction-wise. It is a job in and of itself. Which makes all the hard work that much obselete when people come at me like I am on tinder. ::facepalm::

I fear my lack of sharing this sidework is hurting me, and following some of my favorite companies could be good. But, I just don't want to "blow my cover", despite knowing careful ways around it, etc.

Thank you all for the meaningful interaction.

Best Regards,

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2019 04:41PM by KijohBear7.
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September 03, 2019 06:20PM
That would be an inappropriate use of LinkedIn. I don't have my pic on any social media - not even FB.

@KijohBear7 wrote:

Monk-N-Nut, I cannot tell you how many random CEO's have reached out to me, not for work, but to go on a date. I would laugh, but what the heck?!
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September 04, 2019 02:03AM
I don't follow any MSC on social media.

@KijohBear7 wrote:

HonnyBrown and Irene_L.A., thanks for the feedback. My results with LinkedIn have been mixed, but I am always looking for new ways to branch out. Do you follow the MS companies you contract with?

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
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September 04, 2019 02:09AM
Yes, I think there are MSC's on FB....look at the bottom of those emails that get blasted 4x a day. They say, Connect with us on: f, in, birdie...... Even the clown in a cube MSC has an FB page.
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September 04, 2019 02:51AM
There are MSCs that encourage "us" to "Like" them on Facebook. I refuse to do that. Why would I want to tell all of my Facebook friends that I am a mystery shopper? Why would I want to encourage competition by letting my "Friends" know that I mystery shop? "Liking" an MSC on Facebook has never made any sense to me at all, and not only because it could start costing me cents (homonym in intended).

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008
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September 04, 2019 04:58AM
@Monk-N-Nut wrote:

I used it for many years for IT work, but not MS'ing. In the past 10 years or so, I've been increasingly annoyed that although my profile is private I still have random people contact me. If you do use it, I would expect a fair amount of junk.

I am in the same boat. I'm lucky, as don't get much junk. I have a bunch of connections, but few in mystery shopping. Probably the most annoying to me is when I'm notified that x-number of people have viewed my profile, but they won't identify them unless I upgrade. Thanks, but no thanks.
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September 04, 2019 09:55AM
A scheduler I do regular work for got a promotion to social media. In her last email as a scheduler, she requested that shoppers like/follow/tweet their site.

Really??

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
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September 04, 2019 01:16PM
@HonnyBrown wrote:

I've been on LinkedIn for a few years. It has been totally useless.

I guess it depends on how you look at it. LinkedIn is oversaturated with salemen and recruiters. If there's anything that's useful, it's been the recruiters that have hit me up so far.

Very infrequently shopping the Greater Denver Area, Colorado Springs and in-between in Colorado these days.
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September 04, 2019 02:56PM
The amazing part about all of this is MSCs telling shoppers to be discreet, not give give themselves away, and then....like us on Facebook!

Every social media connection you have to anything MS related puts you in jeopardy of being suspected and/or discovered on a any shop where they have your name, so why would MS companied promote that?
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September 04, 2019 06:55PM
It is okay to put your pictures on social media sites. Fb, to me is more for fun so to me I don't think a specific type of pictures matters. As long as it's an appropriate picture for all to see of course. I see LinkedIn more as a professional social media sites so a picture some what professional looking with just you in it is good in my opinion. I do follow some companies on fb and LinkedIn but the ones I follow do more than just mystery shopping work.

"Here's to strong women. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them."


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/2019 11:02PM by MeltedSunflower622.
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September 04, 2019 08:16PM
I signed up some years back, but do not recall ever using the site. A few years later, a scheduler contacted me stating her surprise at seeing my pic on LI; so was I as I had not chosen to upload one. When I checked, I discovered LI had uploaded one as a service; the problem was it was far from professional. I spent a few hours discovering the combination to delete my profile; they certainly did not make that action easy.
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September 05, 2019 01:41AM
Not on topic but related to LinkedIn and Mystery shopping. I did a hotel shop at the Ritz and two employees looked me up on LinkedIn. It freaked me all the way out. Has that happened to anyone else before?
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September 05, 2019 02:12AM
High-end hotels often look up their best customers. I traveled extensively and have been at or near the top tier in Marriott for well over a decade. The top of the line hotels in the group (JW Marriott, Renaissance, now Luxury Collection and Le Meridien have been added) often looked me up so as to know about me and better serve me. An early surprise was learning that they had my photograph and shared it and preferences such as the fruit I liked in my room and the type and number of pillows I liked on the bed among properties. Even my preference for flavor of birthday cake was spread around JW Marriott and Renaissance properties. My view is that I only put on LinkedIn and Facebook what I am comfortable with anyone in the world seeing or knowing. I suspect that there are some others on this Forum who have had similar experiences with hotels and cruise lines, not to mention airline lounges in major hub cities overseas..
@eyelove2shop wrote:

Not on topic but related to LinkedIn and Mystery shopping. I did a hotel shop at the Ritz and two employees looked me up on LinkedIn. It freaked me all the way out. Has that happened to anyone else before?

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008
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September 05, 2019 03:01AM
All of that information (my preferences) is in my Bonvoy profile. There is no need to look me up on LinkedIn. It seems very invasive.
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September 05, 2019 03:19AM
To the best of my knowledge, what is now Bonviy never asked me what fruit I wanted in my room or what flavor birthday cake I wanted. I don't think my picture is there either. My pillow preference might be (IHG Crowne Plaza is particularly obsessive about pillows). A lot has changed in the last two decades.
@eyelove2shop wrote:

All of that information (my preferences) is in my Bonvoy profile. There is no need to look me up on LinkedIn. It seems very invasive.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008
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September 05, 2019 04:40AM
Yep. I did a test drive shop. Sales Dude hit me up on every single social media app by the time I got home, including My Space. Who uses My Space?

The bad thing is, if you aren't signed up with a site, it bombards you with emails.

@eyelove2shop wrote:

Not on topic but related to LinkedIn and Mystery shopping. I did a hotel shop at the Ritz and two employees looked me up on LinkedIn. It freaked me all the way out. Has that happened to anyone else before?

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
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September 05, 2019 01:20PM
I don't know if this has happened to me (no one said anything), but how did you come to find out that the employees looked you up? That seems offensive to me and only reinforces the few measures I take to preserve some sense of privacy. I would have reported them to the hotel mgmt.

@eyelove2shop wrote:

Not on topic but related to LinkedIn and Mystery shopping. I did a hotel shop at the Ritz and two employees looked me up on LinkedIn. It freaked me all the way out. Has that happened to anyone else before?
Reply
September 05, 2019 02:56PM
I think they generally 'Google' you and often the Linkedin or FB profile is one of the first hits, since it will have pics most of the time. I had a concierge tell me that he got my info from FB so I'm very careful what appears there.

I don't hide my FB info since I use that for professional connections. I just make sure there are very few connections to MSing on it. Same with Linkedin.

On a similar note; in the years before FB, I checked into a Ritz and approached the front desk the next day to ask a question. An agent whom I had never interacted with greeted me by name and when I seemed shocked, she showed me the blotter on her desk that had pics and names for each VIP guest at the hotel. The pics were from the security camera behind the FD.

Associating pics/names with guests has been going on longer than social media has existed. The internet just made it easier!
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September 05, 2019 03:08PM
While I appreciate personalized service and I don't knock people for wanting to go the extra mile, all of this creeps me out a bit.
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