LinkedIn

This article is a stub. You can help the IndieWeb wiki by expanding it.

LinkedIn is a special-purpose silo for hosting your professional resume, history, and contacts, and you can prominently show your IndieWeb site there by adding “🌐 domain” to the start of your profile Headline field.

Why

You may want to post (or POSSE) your resume to LinkedIn to find a job.

How to

How to show your domain

LinkedIn does not show your website information by default in profile views, search results, or search engine results.

To work around this, you can include your personal website in the Headline field of your profile. Here’s how:

Go to: https://www.linkedin.com/public-profile/settings
Click: (Edit Contents) in the right column
Click the ✏️ (pencil) icon in the main column of your profile near the top
Scroll down to the "Headline" field and enter “🌐 domain.” before the rest of your Headline, e.g.
- 🌐 tantek.com.

Why?

So people viewing your profile even in search results can immediately see your domain (and perhaps recognize you)

Why 🌐?

Because LinkedIn disallows "https://" in the Headline field, and 🌐 is a reasonably recognizable emoji for a World Wide Website.

How to export your data

Right hand menu / Privacy & Settings - Manage
Getting an archive of your data - Change
Fast file (from memory... this part is unavailable now that I've done it)

Then they send you email when it's ready. Note: You can only request one download per 72 hours

The result is a "Rich Media" directory and a bunch of CSV files:

$ head -1 *.csv
==> Additional Honors and Awards.csv <==
Honors and Awards

==> Certifications.csv <==
Name,Url,Authority,Start Date,End Date,License Number

==> Connections.csv <==
First Name,Last Name,Email Address,Current Company,Current Position,Tags

==> Contacts.csv <==
First Name,Last Name,Email,Notes,Tags

==> Education.csv <==
School Name,Start Date,End Date,Notes,Degree Name,Activities

==> Inbox.csv <==
From,To,Date,Subject,Content,Direction,Folder

==> Interests.csv <==
Interests

==> Invitations.csv <==
From,To,Date,Subject,Content,Direction,Folder

==> PhoneNumbers.csv <==
Number,Extension,Type

==> Positions.csv <==
Company Name,Description,Location,Start Date,End Date,Title

==> Profile.csv <==
First Name,Last Name,Maiden Name,Created Date,Address,Birth Date,Contact Instructions,Marital Status,Headline,Summary,Industry,Association

==> Projects.csv <==
Title,Start Date,End Date,Description,Url

==> Publications.csv <==
Name,Date,Description,Publisher,Url

==> Recommendations Given.csv <==
Recommendee First Name,Recommendee Last Name,Recommendation Date,Recommendation,Recommendee Company,Recommendee Title

==> Recommendations Received.csv <==
Recommender First Name,Recommender Last Name,Recommendation Date,Recommendation,Recommender Company,Recommender Title,Recommendation status

==> Registration Info.csv <==
Registration Date,Registration IP,Subscription Type,Inviter First Name,Inviter Last Name

==> Skills.csv <==
Skill Name

Issues

Issues are problems due to perhaps ignorance (rather than malice) that we optimistically hope could/would be fixed.

Lack of rel-me

LinkedIn has a way to add your "Blog" URL to your LinkedIn profile, however, it has multiple problems:

your LinkedIn profile URL does not actually have curlable hyperlink markup to your blog (JSON only)
hyperlink itself uses a linkedin redirect to your blog
hyperlink in the DOM lacks a rel=me

So LinkedIn will not work as an IndieAuth provider.

Criticism

Criticism applies to bad behaviors that have some amount of malintent / maldesign.

Removing Key Features

2018-01: "We’re removing manually entered contacts data."
2016-12: Relationship Section of Profile - No Longer Available

They demoted search-by-location to the point where it was nearly impossible to use, but it seems to be better now. Madmode.com (talk) 19:38, 5 January 2018 (PST)

Creepy emails

In order to retain users, LinkedIn now send out emails to tell you that people are looking at your profile, which is kind of creepy. The subject lines are of the form: "(name), people are looking at your LinkedIn profile".

It doesn't quite reach dark pattern levels of evil, but it is playing on your natural anxiety around being watched (especially in an era of PRISM and Edward Snowden etc.)

Treats Import as Spam Contacts

LinkedIn spams everyone you "import":

2013-03-06 https://twitter.com/mathowie/status/309417266842308608
With three clicks, I (accidentally) asked 1138 people to connect on LinkedIn using their import feature. Goddammit, I hate you LinkedIn.
2013-03-06 Matt Haughey: LinkedIn is a Virus - longer blog post with follow-up analysis
2016-03 Evert Pot: 10 years on LinkedIn - Blog post stating that it's too valuable to close the account, but full of "creepy practises"

Public Profiles Require Login to View

As of 2017-??, even with all the public profile settings enabled, profiles require logging in to view. Viewing a public profile URL without being logged in presents a login screen.

Public Feed Updates Require Login to View

Similarly, likely around the same timeframe, public posts require logging in to view.

E.g.: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:linkedInArticle:6352488579234570240/

and errantly says: "Oops… / This post is not available"

Confirmed that it requires login: https://twitter.com/ndw/status/948883716239224833

Workaround:

use their "pulse" links instead:
- e.g. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/my-newwwyear-simon-st-laurent/ (via https://twitter.com/simonstl/status/949315797368918017)

POSSE to LinkedIn

LinkedIn features an API that supports "sharing content on LinkedIn", which can be used for POSSEing. Based on a session at IndieWebCamp Brighton 2016 it had apparently not been attempted; subsequently Sebastian Greger presented a proof-of-concept at the IndieWebCamp.

Useful resources:

Backfeeding comments and likes is also possible via the API.

POSSE Examples

sgreger started POSSEing to LinkedIn on 2016-09-25
- original: ???
- POSSE copy: https://www.linkedin.com/nhome/updates?topic=6185750612253175808

Why