Are There Really Any LinkedIn Experts?

Who's a LinkedIn Expert?

I recently encountered a couple of people in LinkedIn groups claiming to be LinkedIn experts and LinkedIn trainers, who not only were to my mind giving out poor advice, but also blatantly breaching the terms of the LinkedIn User Agreement. In my view, any LinkedIn trainer who does not teach clients about the User Agreement Do's and Dont's and the importance of fulfilling these contractual obligations, is simply not doing a very good job.

Moreover, any "LinkedIn trainer" who is themselves either unaware or blatantly knowingly breaking the User Agreement should be avoided by paying customers.

The trouble is, however, at the same time, there has been a large amount of discussion in the "LinkedIn Experts" google+ community, as well as across LinkedIn itself amongst the "trainers" and "experts", about LinkedIn's plethora of changes. These changes, in places, simply make a mockery of the User Agreement and make it's interpretation difficult or highly ambiguous. Moreover, these discussions show the "experts" themselves are getting a bit lost with all the unannounced changes being implemented in haphazards ways by LinkedIn.

I myself have always wondered where and how people get to become accredited LinkedIn trainers. Especially when LinkedIn is changing so fast that even LinkedIn themselves clearly do not understand or control what the platform is or does anymore. In the recent discussions, two things come to the fore. I have been informed that indeed, "there are no accredited course of certification a LinkedIn trainer could obtain" and secondly that "it is true that LinkedIn says we are not to call ourselves LinkedIn trainer...most of us have been rapped over the knuckles at some stage". Apparently, LinkedIn themselves tell people on the platform calling themselves LinkedIn trainers they need to rewrite it as "social media trainer who likes LinkedIn".

I suggest simply, LinkedIn Aficionado.

Because what is very clear from this is that there are no longer really any LinkedIn experts, accredited or otherwise. The LinkedIn User Experience and Interfaces, as well as the nature of the user base itself and how they are interacting with each other on LinkedIn, has changed so far and so fast, that none of us really know much about it at all - apart from it will be reliably unpredictable for some time to come.