I have been using the LinkedIn network for a couple of years now but to be honest it has never really been my favourite on-line network because it really didn't contain much in the way of networking tools - but that is all changing.
If you want to look for a job in IT, or promote yourself to prospective head hunters, or look for joint venture partners in a software project there is no doubt that LinkedIn really works. There are some very high profile success stories like Scott Rafer who contacted Eric Marcoullier one of the founders of MyBlogLog with an idea for the development of the product, got appointed as CEO and has just picked up a very nice fortune when the business was acquired by Yahoo last month.
But things are happening at LinkedIn to make the network more interactive in particular the new Answers feature which enables you to ask any question and get responses from the LinkedIn network - very useful if you want some opinions on a product or service or if you want to undertake some research - but most importantly it is getting members of the linked in network interacting where it had been fairly static.
The real value of LinkedIn is in helping members find out who their network knows and getting introduced. I have just 330 members in my network - but they know nearly 150,000 people. However even getting people I know who are on LinkedIn to connect never been very user friendly. If you click on my profile in the right side panel it is not easy to see how to link to me and you need to then go find my email address to send the invite all of which means you may not bother. However yesterday Marketing Hipster Cord Silverstein pointed me to a very neat widget created by Andy Beard - the LinkeIn Fast button
Just Click to Connect
Get your own LinkedIn Fast
Update: As you can see this neat widget is no more. LinkedIn objected and Andy removed it (actually I think it probably does still work - but LinkedIn want it stopped. So if you want to link to me on LinkedIn my email address is rikki at gendershift dot com (just to stop the spammers though I think most of them have my email address already)
I have also noticed that more an more of my network contacts are joining LinkedIn - I recently connected up with a number of trans community leaders from Press for Change and that has promoted some better communications and the possibility of some joint venture work. So I am suddenly taking a much bigger interest in LinkedIn and my network is growing very quickly.
If you are not a member I do recommend joining and linking up with me - you may be surprised who you meet, and if you need some tips on putting together your LinkedIn Profile here are some great ideas from top blogger Guy Kawasaki.
Rikki Arundel 
Motivational Speaker
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The GenderShift Blog
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Tuesday, February 06, 2007
LinkedIn - Now becoming a really useful network
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8 Comments:
Rikki,
Thanks for the hat tip. Your post was interesting because I have been a big Linkedin fan in the past, but recently with the launch of Linkedin Answers, it's starting to get on my nerves to be honest.
It seems to me that 90% of all the questions people are posting are totally self serving and they are not interested in the answers, they are trying to promote themselves and their company.
I am concerned that Linkedin will turn into one big spam pit.
Hi Cord
Interesting comment. I have about over 335 direct connections and so far most of the questions have been stimulated interesting discussions. I think there is little doubt that people will use any open discussion medium to promote themselves - but I have not noticed too much overt self promoting in my network that I would classify as spamming.
I think a lot of people miss the point about networking - I define it as "Building long term relationships with people worth knowing" - which means having network of people who trust them. One good thing about LinkedIn is that I can remove anyone who abuses their relationship with me - So if anyone starts overdoing self promoting questions - I will just dump them from my network.
Rikki
SEO is one angle not a lot of people think of LinkedIn for. I recently wrote an article about it. I have 1700+ direct connections. The majority of them are people I've worked with in the past. I've found high school friends through it and even co-workers from long ago...
Cool Tool...
John
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Thanks for Nice and informative post.
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