Yesterday I Viewed All My LinkedIn Connections. LinkedIn Thought I Was a Bot.
After sixteen years on LinkedIn, I looked at every single one of my almost 1,000 connections. I got an alert saying my behavior was suspicious.
Today, my LinkedIn account is 16 years, 5 months, and 22 days old.
I created my profile on April 7, 2009.
If my LinkedIn profile were a person, it could now drive a car.
Yesterday, I decided to review the profiles of every single connection I have. It took me more than six hours.
What a trip down memory lane. Scrolling through my connections brought back so many memories:
Places I’ve been
Jobs I’ve had
Cities I’ve lived in
Events I’ve gone to
Social circles I’ve been part of
It was encouraging… and a little sad.
Every person I’m connected to on LinkedIn is someone I’ve met in person, seen face to face in a virtual meeting, or was a referral from someone I know who introduced me to them. With few exceptions, I recognized every name, and I remember where and when I first met them.
It’s mind-blowing to see how much has changed over the past 16 years.
Many people have different employers.
Some people have retired.
Some people are looking for work.
Some people are in different industries.
At least three people are dead.
(Some of them have duplicate accounts, and I’m connected to them twice! They must have lost their login info, given up, and started over.)
I’m connected to:
14 Marks
13 Johns
7 Smiths
7 Johnsons
(If I ever host an in-person event with everyone, I’ll need multiple tables just for the Marks and Johns!)
My network grew in fits and spurts, too.
In 2013, holy moly, I was an active networker.
In 2020, I fell off the face of the earth when COVID hit.
Some people I know are wildly successful CEOs of powerful corporations who can move millions of dollars in capital with the stroke of a pen. Some are just high school graduates.
Some are people I talked to this week. Some are people I haven’t spoken to in over a decade.
Overall, my biggest takeaway from a day spent perusing my connections was wondering:
What are all these people up to now?
When’s the last time I talked to them?
What is the point of having a connection if we never actually connect?
Starting now, I intend to change this. I’m going to reach out to people I haven’t talked to in a long time. How are they doing? How can I help them? How can I keep them in mind when I’m out and about meeting folks?
Here’s the strangest part about this: this morning, when I logged in, I got an alert from LinkedIn, saying they thought I was a bot.
“We noticed activity from your account that indicates you might be using an automation tool…”
I had to click a button to agree not to use automated software; otherwise, my account might be restricted.
How dumb is that? For 16 years, I’ve been making connections with REAL people I know in REAL life, and yesterday, by simply looking at their profiles, my behavior was so “unreal” that LinkedIn thought only a BOT would do this.
If checking in on people I know is behavior that doesn’t look human, then humans have a serious problem.
Today, I have a challenge for anyone reading this:
Reach out to someone you’re connected to but haven’t spoken to in years.
How are they doing? What are they up to?
When’s the last time you checked in on your friends and contacts you met years ago?