ONE-DAY “CEO OF SHELL” AND LESSONS IN UNCRITICAL SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWERSHIP
It is a known fact that many people embellish their achievements on Social Media. However, one would expect users of a serious professional network like LinkedIn to be a little more critical.
Robbrecht van Amerongen, trying to experiment on how people trust LinkedIn information, changed his LinkedIn profile position to “CEO Shell” for 24 hours.
The following happened:
•Received almost 400 likes and 80 customized comments.
•Got more than 500 emails with a personal message.
•10 of closest co-workers called within 2 hours.
•Got almost 25 text messages.
•Spontaneously received 10 CV’s and requests for a job at the new company.
•2 offshore companies sent an email to get an appointment as soon as possible.
His conclusion:
I realized that there can be a huge difference between what someone can write down and the actual achievements of a person. What you read on LinkedIn could be the result of window dressing or just a plain lie. Performing a background check when hiring a new candidate is always a good idea.
His account can be read here.
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