Why Do You Use LinkedIn?
In Social Networks | 2 comments | permalink
So I’ve been thinking about this issue. I consistently give out invite requests and receive invite requests on LinkedIn. Rarely, and I mean rarely, does someone ask me to make an introduction. And rarer still do I ask for an introduction.
So why do so many of us use it? Is it to provide ourselves an updated list of the whereabouts of people with whom we’d like to stay connected? Is it a nice, online backup to Outlook? Are people really using the Answers feature? Or is it for employment purposes such as finding job listings or researching contacts with whom you might have an interview?
I just don’t have a very good answer. In my role in business development, it’s certainly valuable to maintain contacts and to have access to contacts of contacts in case I’m trying to build a relationship with a person or company. So it certainly meets that need for me.
What about you? Why are you using LinkedIn? I’d love to hear your answer.
Tags: LinkedIn, social networking, jobs, Answers, Outlook
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LinkedIn is probably the only social network that I’m an active member of. I like the fact that it allows me to keep in touch with my peer group and my old business contacts.
I’ve also made a lot of good new business contacts and I’ve also had a few good calls from headhunters.
It’s also useful to make sure your profile page has a friendly url as it’s good to have this page come up when profesional contacts Google you
I’ve only recently started using LinkedIn, and find the primary use to be “bookmarking” people. In my dual role of trying to sell ads on my existing web site while looking for white label partners for our software, I talk to a lot of people that might be a good fit for one or the other at some point in the future. Likewise, I assume people accept my invitations or invite me into their networks because while they might not have an immediate need for online community software / consulting, it’s nice to “bookmark” someone with that expertise. I tend to keep up with former colleagues in a more traditional manner - email, IM, and phone.