Is your LinkedIn profile like a lost business card?

Having a great LinkedIn profile isn’t enough

I was having a clearout at home recently when I stumbled across an old wallet that I haven’t used for several years.

Excited by the prospect of finding a crumpled old abandoned £20 note or two I quickly rummaged through its contents.
Alas the only currency I found was a few darkened copper coins but I did find something that sparked my interest and has resulted in this blog post.

Hidden deep within one of the pockets was a dog eared business card, at first I didn’t recognise the name but the job title was somewhat unusual;

‘Magician and Corporate Entertainer’

This helped me remember the moment when I acquired this card.

I had been at a corporate Christmas party and the organisers had arranged for a magician to visit each table performing small tricks for our entertainment.
I remember being very impressed with him so I asked him for a business card, I knew a number of people who organised corporate events and thought they might need this guy’s services at some point.
I put his card in my wallet and that was where it stayed until now, despite having plenty of opportunities since, I never did refer him to anyone.

This clearly demonstrates the significant drawbacks of relying on handing someone a small rectangular card as a way to keep in touch and be remembered!

But this is not a post about the advantages a LinkedIn profile has over a business card.

The odd thing about this situation was that I normally ensure that I go through my recently collected business cards and connect with them all on LinkedIn so I looked him up on LinkedIn and surprise surprise we were connected after all!
So what went wrong, why didn’t I remember him?
The reason was easy to see, a quick look at his profile and recent activity showed that he was very inactive – best described as a LinkedIn member rather than a LinkedIn user….a similar thing to a gym member rather than a gym user!

Being connected on LinkedIn is not enough to ensure you are remembered (Tweet this), neither is creating an impressive profile.

The only way you are going to stay front of mind is through regular contact and activity.

An inactive Linkedin member is no better than that abandoned, crumpled up business card!