Out of Scope Issue 83: What’s Happening to LinkedIn?
Plus: President Biden declares an end to the pandemic and Beyond Meat nose dives.
This week, Hirsch Leatherwood reflected on LinkedIn’s changing culture. Has the professional networking site gotten too social for its own good? We also looked at reputational challenges facing Netflix and Beyond Meat. Read on to remember what’s appropriate on LinkedIn and why you shouldn’t compare your brand to Big Brother.
💡ON OUR MINDS: Oversharing on LinkedIn
In the New York Times, Lora Kelley recounts how LinkedIn went from a staid professional networking site to a social platform where employees share their personal lives. Kelley attributes the shift to the pandemic, arguing that employees have turned to LinkedIn to find the social connections they once enjoyed at the office. This has resulted in a very different feeling on nearly everyone’s newsfeed. In between the job listings and industry projections, there are more and more tearful reflections and pictures of brunch.
This story touches on several trends that Out of Scope has touched on in the past, chiefly the blurring boundaries between our work and personal lives. People have become much more comfortable showing vulnerability on LinkedIn. But is that a good thing?
It’s also a testament to the seemingly inevitable convergence of social media platforms—Twitter created Fleets to be more like Instagram, Instagram deployed Reels to be more like TikTok, and now LinkedIn is becoming a lot like Facebook. Kelley notes that LinkedIn thought leaders are now behaving more like influencers.
As the nature of LinkedIn evolves, it’s more important than ever for executives to take a strategic approach to the platform. We all want to keep in touch with social media norms, but just because people are oversharing doesn’t mean they should. Wherever your stakeholders may be engaging with your brand, it’s important to keep it professional.
📡 ON OUR RADAR
President Biden declared “the pandemic is over” during his recent interview with 60 Minutes. As a recent Intelligencer article explains, in a way he’s right. We see mask mandates lifting, less people dying from COVID-19, and an overall decrease in anxiety about contracting the virus. The other side of the coin is that his declaration conflicts with health officials who are encouraging the American public to get their updated boosters. The messaging has the potential to work against the White House own campaign to convince Congress to approve a $22.4 billion in emergency COVID-19 funding.
Words matter whether in corporate communications or, in this case, public health. Dr. Akilah Cadet offers an important take: viruses don't discriminate, yet we continually name them with language reinforcing social stigmas and racial disparities. The latest is monkeypox - for some, evoking the derogatory term "monkey" often used to describe Black people. The virus has wrongly been billed as concerning only queer men and BIPOC people, stigmatizing minority communities and giving others a false sense of security.
Beyond Meat learned the hard lesson that a strong mission (and wishful thinking) can’t trump supply and demand. The Wall Street Journal reported on the meat alternative’s plummeting stock prices, noting that only 5% of Americans consider themselves to be vegetarian. And if that wasn’t bad enough, their COO was arrested for biting someone’s nose.
Hollywood stars’ recent behavior is making production studios consider whether all publicity really is good publicity. On the back of Will Smith’s infamous slap and Ezra Miller’s pattern of disturbing behavior in recent months, both Apple and Warner Bros. have been forced to navigate the impossible choice of being perceived as publicly supporting the stars amid continued backlash or losing their multi-hundred million dollar investment. In an industry dependent on the average watcher – many who hold strong beliefs about individual performers – studios have been put in a lose-lose situation, truly fit for a movie.
Privacy groups and city residents have criticized New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s plans to install video cameras in the city’s subway cars. Hochul’s announcement drew a strange positive comparison between the choice and the oft-invoked “Big Brother” of Orwell’s 1984, a reference typically reserved as a caution against over-surveillance. “You think ‘Big Brother’ is watching you on the subway?” said Hochul. “You’re absolutely right.” We typically advise against aligning projects with famous villains– no “fly, my pretties!” or “release the hounds!” at press conferences.
🥊QUICK HITS:
In case you missed these stories this week.
The release of Adnan Syed (the subject of the hit show Serial) is a yet another testament to the power of podcasts as a medium .
Justin Trudeau’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” singalong is criticized as tone deaf.
Social media users continue to reach disturbing new heights of culinary creativity with Nyquil chicken, despite warnings from the FDA.
ESPN has launched a “creator network” with an eye to attracting TikTok talent.
We’ll see you here next week! 👋
HL
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The fine print: today’s issue is brought to you by ongoing inflation.