News this morning that LinkedIn has removed the ability to export personal contact lists will surely have an impact on the number of premium account renewals.
In case you don’t know: LinkedIn is a social networking software platform designed specifically for the business community. The goal of the site is to allow registered members to establish and document networks of people they know and trust professionally.
Follow the link from the export contacts page to the so called help page (that has no reference at all your contacts), it goes on to inform you that there is a wait time of 72 hours for the data.
What’s interesting from a design and marketing viewpoint is that the notice that informs you that you can no longer export the data looks cheap and shoddy and not in keeping with LinkedIn’s branding.
LinkedIn doesn’t make rash decisions and there is a reason behind this move but whatever their reason it’s wrong. Check out LinkedIn’s ‘Our Members Come First’ blurb:
“By acting with integrity and holding ourselves personally accountable for our actions, we show our users and our peers that they can depend on us to keep their information safe and their best interests at heart.”
Yes, keep it safe but please don’t prevent me from accessing it.
We’ll watch this story as it unfolds and keep you posted. More on this breaking story over on Venture Beat.
