Someone I know; and is highly respected in the Talent Acquisition / Social Media space, mentioned the other day on Twitter that she had received a Valentines card through LinkedIn.  She was rightly offended, as that's an inappropriate use of LinkedIn.

It got me thinking about how some people can be inappropriate in their use of Social Media.

I doubt you're now thinking, "So what's wrong with sending a Valentines card to a contact on LinkedIn?"  However, just in case anyone reading this, is actually thinking that.  Let me explain.

LinkedIn is a professional networking site.  Its where business leaders, experts in their field and professionals generally contact other similar people.  It's also where a lot of recruiters will look for talent for the roles they're looking to fill.  I've worked in Recruitment for over 15 years, 10 of that using LinkedIn.  I've never thought about approaching someone on their for a date.  The only romancing I thought about doing; was for them to fall for the job I was recruiting for at the time.  See what I did there?

I've started to see a pattern forming on LinkedIn over the past few months, and this is clearly being generated by the misuse of the site.  One of the handiest tools on LinkedIn is, "People Also Viewed".  However, on the candidate side I'm finding it becoming less effective.  Usually, it will be based on what profiles other users have viewed after viewing that particular candidate.  This is great if, the other users have been interested in the person for their skills and background.  What I've been finding recently, is if I'm looking at a woman's profile, and she's quite glamorous.  The "People Also Viewed" section consists of a number of other glamorous women who have no matching skills what-so-ever.  This is a massive concern for me.  This means that inappropriate behaviour of people on LinkedIn; is actually starting to affect the effectiveness of searching.

I use LinkedIn on a daily basis for searching.  I've had to adapt in the past to how I use LinkedIn.  However, this usually stems from LinkedIn trying to get people to pay for a Premium account, and I didn't feel the value.  As far as I'm aware this is the first time that people's misuse of it has affected my use.

So if you're in LinkedIn thinking about dating and want to approach someone.  DONT DO IT!  Get on Match.com or some other reputable dating sites.  People on LinkedIn don't want a personal relationship with you.  If they were looking to date, they'd be on a dating site as well.