Phil Lauterjung

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Help Correct LinkedIn Geography

July 13th, 2009 |

Author: Phil Lauterjung

My last post was about a pet peeve of mine – customer service. Well, here’s another one, a pet peeve that is. Might as well keep the theme going this week.

I live in Orange County, CA and have been a member of LinkedIn since 2005; and have found it to be a valuable business network. However, since I joined LinkedIn they say that I live in the ‘Greater Los Angeles Area.’ I have always thought that very odd since Orange County has over 3 million people and an extremely vibrant business community. There are many much smaller communities in California, and other states, whose residents are listed in the proper community with LinkedIn.

Right about now you are probably wondering why this really matters. After all, most of you reading this likely don’t live anywhere near Orange County. You might be familiar with one of the cheesey cable TV shows about the OC – please don’t believe that nonsense – and think that this is really the land of fruits and nuts; and who cares where LinkedIn thinks you work.

But, think about this from a business standpoint. LinkedIn is the largest (40+ mil. members and counting) business network in the world. Many rely on it to help us do business in many different locations, and we should be able to pinpoint those locations more accurately than somewhere in the midst of 12 million people (the Greater LA Area). If you’re looking for a supplier or job candidate in this vast area, how are you going to determine if they are located where you need them to be? I’m sure you’ve heard the stories about our traffic situation. You need to pinpoint the location way better than somewhere in the Greater LA Area.

There is a discussion group called “We Are Orange County” that was started on LinkedIn about 2 months ago by Sven Johnston, and we now have 2,400 members who are passionate and proud to be doing business in Orange County. You may also be a member of LinkedIn and are stuck in a geographical label that doesn’t really match where you live and work. I would like to invite you to join us in correcting this flaw in what is otherwise a terrific business tool.

We have initiated a campaign to get the fine folks at LinkedIn to revisit and revise the way in which they identify geographical areas. So far we have not been very successful in seeing any interest from LinkedIn management in addressing the issue. However, we believe very strongly that there is strength in numbers; and we invite you to join our discussion group. Not because you live in Orange County, CA; but, because you believe in our cause and someday you will hopefully want to do business with one of us here and would like to be able to find us easily on LinkedIn.

If you agree with us, and are a member of LinkedIn, please log in and search in Groups for “We Are Orange County”; and please also forward this blog post to your LinkedIn network and ask them to join with us. We need your help. Thank you.