I got an email from a person I knew the other day. It was to “Rate Me”. It was sort of an odd request, but it was tied in to LinkedIN($LNKD). So, it seemed sort of respectable. In my daily routine, I interact with all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds. I try to be a super connector like James Altucher wrote about and am willing to help just about anyone.
Anyway, I fell for the scam. I rated my acquaintance.
Three days later I started getting emails from people that I hadn’t emailed in a long time telling me they were out of the office. Uh-oh. Then, some closer friends of mine emailed me and asked, “Do you really want me to do this?”. I emailed them back that it was SPAM.
If you received an email that looks like it’s from LinkedIN, or says Rate Me from me, I sincerely apologize. I am very sensitive to people getting junk email because our email boxes fill up fast enough. I get so much junk email though my blog address it’s not even funny.
I am hopeful that it is LinkedIN getting hacked.
If it’s the diabolical programmers at LinkedIN coming up with a cheap way to extend their social network, then it’s disgusting. Social networks should grow organically. I understand that there are gimmicky ways to grow them by putting tabs, asking people if they want to tweet their last action or other things like that, but this one is pretty ridiculous and a new low.
If the LinkedIN people actually read this blog post and they really did cook up such a scam to increase the breadth of their social network, you ought to re-examine your values. SPAMming people with stupid stuff like Rate Me will only decrease the long run value of your network, not increase it.
The best way to get people on your platform and have them stick, create value for them. It has worked ever since man started to specialize and engage in commerce.