Obiter wants to know, did you enjoy your cup cakes? What do you mean you didn’t receive any? Oh dear. Here, have a sympathetic head tilt instead.
What are we talking about? Why, influence, prestige – recognition. The professional social network site LinkedIn, marketing and PR experts always remind us, is not just a place to park an out-of-date CV, but as a place to talk and share.
On, depending on your view, an inspired or slow day the team at TBD Marketing worked out a list of the top ‘LinkedINFLUENCERS’ (see what they did there?). Obiter doesn’t know how far down the list those named received a sweet treat, but Obiter’s friend, the media lawyer Mark Stephens CBE, logged on to share a photo of the cup cakes he received (pictured below) – all six of which are topped with an edible photo of his LinkedIn profile pic.
Classy is too small a word. Obiter thinks opening that box must feel just like the King feels when a new set of stamps comes out.
Mark had some advice anyone aiming for a top slot in the future. ‘People recognise honesty,’ he advised the people at TBD. ‘It adds verisimilitude to one's online persona. What you see is what I'm thinking about. Unfiltered. Engaging, a hedonistic mix of the intellectually curious.’
His rise to the top has not been all plain sailing, he recalls: ‘I'm one of the very few lawyers to have been suspended by LinkedIn. Because someone didn’t understand a comment and reported me – nor did the LinkedIn reviewer get the reference. But my account was promptly restored after I rather laboriously dissected and explained UK references to our former Prime Minister, in (what I thought) a witty post – something about: “the only acceptable kind of Johnson-supporter” and discovering that we are all too often divided by a common language.’
Well worth the reinstatement. Nom, nom. And there’s been much goodwill towards Mark’s achievement. ‘Mark in the form of cake… amazing,’ ran one. And from a prominent former general counsel: ‘Are these available in Waitrose yet?’ Then there was the barrister who just asked if he could have one of the cakes.
The prospect of receiving a box of cup cakes with a photo pulled from the LinkedIn website is also, Obiter notices, a rather powerful argument for selecting an up-to-date yet flattering profile image.
Of course, you don’t need to wait to make the list to a get personalised sponge. Rachael’s Kitchen, the baker behind the photo cup cakes, does next day delivery, Tuesday to Saturday, if you upload your photo and pay £24 for six cakes by 4pm.
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