LinkedIn Actually Listens to Their Users

Several weeks ago, Baltimore-based users of LinkedIn had a problem: LinkedIn insisted that Baltimore didn’t exist.

More specifically, LinkedIn classified anybody living in Baltimore as living in the “Washington D.C. Metro Area.”

Considering Baltimore is constantly trying to remind the world that it’s a separate city from D.C., some local Baltimoreans understandably perceived this LinkedIn hiccup as a minor identity crisis.

So they formed a (seemingly informal, as far as I could tell) group called “We’re From Baltimore, Hon!”  [If you've never been to Baltimore, "Hon" is their local variation of "Dear."]  The group’s long-term goal was to create a separation between Baltimore and D.C. in the LinkedIn database.

Evidently, it worked.

This week, I received an email from the group’s manager…

… explaining that all I had to do was re-enter my exact same zip code and LinkedIn would now recognize me as a Baltimorean, rather than a D.C. citizen.

Suddenly, Baltimore’s back on the map — literally.  Not bad for a ragtag group of motivated LinkedIn users.

And kudos to LinkedIn for actually listening.  For all the complaining we social media types tend to do about companies and services mistreating its customers or ignoring their suggestions, it’s nice to know that change really can happen when people commit themselves to doing the smart thing.

Tags: baltimore, Business, common sense, language, LinkedIn, networking, perception, Social Media