It was very nice of LinkedIn to send me notification a little while ago that I have ‘one of the top 10% most viewed LinkedIn profiles for 2012’. I started thinking ‘that’s interesting’ and feeling a little ‘special’. Then I thought, as LinkedIn has 200 million profiles, does that mean about 20 million other LinkedIn members got the same email. That ‘halo of specialness’ started to quickly tarnish. Then I saw other LinkedInians (not all named Ian) had received emails congratulating them on being in the top 5% and even the top 1%.  The ‘halo of specialness’ clattered to the floor like a discarded toilet seat. So what was the purpose of the exercise for LinkedIn? I am sure it ticked a few boxes in the Social Media strategy – but I can’t help but think people will start to ask questions. I see the updates on my LinkedIn ‘home’ page and my profile ‘views’ are not exactly setting records; and I am in the top 10%? Does that mean there are about 180 million LinkedInians out there whose respective profiles get few if any ‘views’?