LinkedIn Questions & Answers

Caveat : I don’t hold anything against the poster of this question : please don’t sue me – I’m just using it as an example to share with readers of this blog on how not to ask a question on LinkedIn.

I subscribe to the Graphic Design Q&A on LinkedIn as an RSS Feed on Google Reader. Browsing it today, there was a question framed as follows :

Hi, can anyone tell me how to create similar flash catalogue? http://www.oriflame.sk/prod/offers/CurrentBrochureFrontpage.jhtml I’d like to know how to make such a loop? I’m not interested in companies that do it for money. I would like to do it on my own – is there any ‘script’ or ‘code’?

LinkedIn is a professional online business networking platform – I might add it’s one of the best. When you do anything on LinkedIn, publicly – even a slight change in your profile – everyone else on LinkedIn comes to know about it – and that is THE reason why one needs to be very professional in all dealings.

What I’m trying to say is, there’s a better way of saying, “I’m not interested in companies that do it for money.” Before you even get to the stage of coming onto LinkedIn to ask your question – if you’re looking for a ‘script’ or anything for free, it would be prudent to search for it on Google. If you’ve already searched on Google and it turned up nothing, either there isn’t anything available or you probably didn’t use the correct search terms. And if you’d like to know how to make something and are unwilling to pay for it, at least be nice and say “I’m a newbie – can’t afford to pay for it – can someone who knows how to do it share their expertise please?”

And to do this on LinkedIn is even worse. It’s not Craigslist or a Freelancer Exchange.

There are so many ways one can use the Question & Answer facility to increase visibility and accessibility – the statistics aren’t visible but there are many people who actually read the questions and take time to reply to the ones they have knowledge about – before posting their answers, they read the other answers posted before them and post only if they have something to add.

If you have even an iota of doubt whether you should post that question on LinkedIn, don’t.