LinkedIn has tapped into the inherent narcissism of social media communication for a very successful program notifying its elite members of their eliteness.
The social network this week began sending notifications to users whose profiles were among the top 1%, 5% and 10% most-viewed in 2012. If you're among the upper echelon, your message looked like this:
Of course, the LinkedIn message easily lent itself to boasting in social media. By Tuesday, Twitter was teeming with messages like the following:
Just got an email saying I had one of the top 5% most-viewed LinkedIn profiles of 2012. So I made the top 10 million? Woohoo! Thanks PR reps— David Goldman (@DavidGoldmanCNN) February 11, 2013
However, as many of the 90 percenters were quick to point out, with 200 million LinkedIn members, you were still one of 2 million people as a 1 percenter and one of 10 million as a 5 percenter and one of 20 million as a 10 percenter. Even some of the elite were dubious about their status, though:
If I have one of the "top 5% most viewed LinkedIn profiles" there must be a huge number of dead profiles out there.— Nigel Legg (@nigellegg) February 12, 2013
When asked what value being in the upper crust confers on its users, a LinkedIn rep replied that "The practical upside to being the top 1% or 5% is that we believe the more engaged you are on LinkedIn, the better you will be in the job that you currently have, and the better connected when you are seeking a new job." LinkedIn began practice of congratulating top users for their elect status in March 2011, when it surpassed 100 million users. At that point, Co-Founder Reid Hoffman sent out emails thanking the networks' first one million members.
What do you think? Are you part of the LinkedIn elite? Do you feel left out? Let us know in the comments.