Sometimes I get it. Often I get it. This time, though, I don’t get it.
About four weeks ago, I received an invitation from a friend to join her ‘LinkedIn network’. I’m always interested in finding out about social software, so with a devil-may-care attitude I signed up, linked to my friend, and thought nothing of it.
Until the next day I received a second invitation. A few days later, a third. The next thing I know I’m racking up a decent list of connections.
Kind of fun. Quotes from the site told me that a lot of very successful people in powerful positions were LinkedIn. Students at big names schools were LinkedIn. I was part of the in crowd. I was important. At my fingertips was a powerful network of people, very likely in suits and ties, and who had large brains, who were just waiting to help me.
Help me do what? What exactly does LinkedIn do? My home page tells me that there are 38 people at the university I work at who are linked in. Am I supposed to invite them to my network? I’m told that I can find old class mates, but if I wanted to do that I would have clicked on one of those annoying popup ads with pictures of people with big hair.
My home page also tells me that my network is 55 percent complete. What does that mean? What happens when it’s 100 percent complete? Do I get a promotion? Do I learn secret handshakes? Do I go to Harvard?
I’ve picked up 526 people in my network sine July 6th, most of them in my third tier. I might pass some of them on the street, but we’d never know it. I don’t even know the names of people in my third tier. Am I supposed to send them a card? Some flowers?
And what is this business about not being recommended? LinkedIn is telling me that nobody has recommended me. There is a nice little application where I can request friends to come in and validate me. I’m insecure enough in the real world, now I’m getting pressure from the online one?
Articles I’ve read say LinkedIn is a great way to get recommendations. I have 12,500 people in my third tier network. Could they help me find a good barber? LinkedIn is supposed to help you find a job. I don’t want a new job, but if I did, would the fact that I’m in LinkedIn help? I could approach a potential employer and say, “Wait a minute, are you THE Jim Boswell? Yeah! It’s me, Marion, I’m in your fifth tier. You know Sally who knows Dave who knows Walton who knows Simon who sent me an invitation because I’m in his Google contact list! So, do I get the job?”
LinkedIn is kind of cool, and a lot of people are doing it, but for me…I still don’t get it. Maybe somebody in my third tier can help explain it to me.
*Update* Looks like I’m not the only one… A couple days after writing this, and we have stats released saying LinkedIn traffic is up 323% but other responding and questioning whether that means much.
Wednesday, 11. July 2007
I’ve been “using” LinkedIn for a couple years now, I think. I put “using” in quotes because it’s pretty much what you say.
I think my profile is only 75% complete (still wondering what the prize is on that one). And I add people who contact me while I read about all the high profile people who use the site.
I’m sure there are plenty of success stories out there derived from using LinkedIn. But I wonder what they are as a percentage of all those who have signed up?
Wednesday, 11. July 2007
I’ve been using LinkedIn for a while and it’s been a pretty useful site to me. For me, it’s a way for me to stay in touch with my contacts I’ve worked with or interacted with at various jobs. After 2-3 years, people tend to drift off and change jobs, addresses, etc and LinkedIn allows them to manage their own contact info which I can keep access to.
I have my resume and some of my interests posted, and it has directly led to potential leads into other opportunities (currently not looking, but if I do happen to want to look, it helps to have some preexisting leads).
Additionally, I’ve had several first tier contacts send out job searches of the form “I’m looking for someone who’d be good at XYZ”. In one case, I was able to forward that request to someone who was both looking as well as good for the job. For me, it’s generally all about that first tier of people I personally know and generally respect. If I view their profile and they have written a recommendation for someone who is looking for a job, that carries some weight with me.
All that said, there are some serious flaws with LinkedIn. For one, there is only two relationship status conditions Linked and not Linked. I’m somewhat selective in who I link to, so it’s somewhat of a odd situation when I get a request from someone I know, but don’t really like. Or on the flip side, when I link to someone I like as a friend, but have no idea what they are like at work.
Even worse though is that there is no way to unlink someone from your network. I’ve not ever needed to, but you’d think if it were trying to model human relationship, there would be a way to sever those connections.
Wednesday, 11. July 2007
“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”
“You graduate from Harvard with a Rolodex, not a degree.”
Catch my drift?
Wednesday, 11. July 2007
Just try to UNLINK someone you’ve linked in. YOU can’t do it. It has to be done by one of their sys admins. Took me a couple of weeks to disconnect someone from my “network”.
Overall, it’s pretty useless to me.
Wednesday, 11. July 2007
I use LinkedIn for the occasion where I might need a job. Hell I’ve had four competitive offers that generated through that website this year alone. I’m not unhappy where I am but it’s a nice feeling to know that you can be re employed that fast.
I think if you do something common you can pop in results quicker then on say monster. If you specialize in something uncommon or in great need, I’ve had so many recruiter calls it’s bordering on annoying ( perhaps because my profile is 100% complete ..I got a Mickey Mouse T-Shirt from them BTW)
I assure you though if I need employment none of those recruiters that call me will qualify as annoying.
Wednesday, 11. July 2007
I haven’t had much use so far in linkedin either
Despite my offering the one thing every business of every industry is always seeking.
Wednesday, 11. July 2007
I’ve had a few friends have a similar reaction to the site as well.
They are missing a serious career/networking opportunity if you ask me.
These days I hardly use it. When it comes time to start a new job hunt, it definitely pays off in spades.
But you have to really use it — i.e. give recommendations to your friends or people that you trust (i.e. that you can actually recommend). Of course they will then recommend you back, if you are recommendable, that is. =)
Then you have the “LinkedIn Whores” as I like to call them. Completely random people who apprently just love having random people they don’t really know as their “friends” on LinkedIn. I usually deny these people.
Wednesday, 11. July 2007
LinkedIn added functionality to remove connections. If you look at your My Connections screen, you should see both Add Connections and Remove Connections. It works.
Thursday, 12. July 2007
Linked in has been pretty useless to me over the past few years I’ve been “on” it. It’s a halfway decent tool to keep track of old contacts, but that’s about it.
Thursday, 12. July 2007
One thing that it does do well is to organize resume information in a way that Monster and CareerBuilder never seemed to get right. Also, the site is ridiculously fast. Unfortunately, LinkedIn is probably more useful to potential employers than it is to an ordinary user because user-to-user interaction weak.
Monday, 16. July 2007
Great post Marion. I have found linkedin to be helpful but it does have some issues. Marion inspired me to write a blog.
http://inspireaction.mindandmedia.com/index.php/2007/07/13/linkedin-and-lovin-it/
And Marion already commented on the blog taking me up on my offer to network! 160 Connections! THANKS MARION!!! (yes, this is the competitiveness issue that I mention in the blog)
Sunday, 12. August 2007
Based upon the posts above, it just goes to show that a given tool is not useful to everyone. If you’re not a carpenter, a hammer and a power saw are probably useless hunks of metal.
But in my case, LinkedIn has been a very useful business tool. I’m a freelance copywriter and through LI I’ve built a network of other copywriters and clients/prospective clients that need my services.
I’ve had other copywriters that were overloaded with work refer me to clients and I’ve had prospective clients contact me and say they read my profile on LI.
Plus, I’ve met many other business persons that I would never have met w/o LI.
Tuesday, 15. April 2008
Today I wanted to remove one of my connections and I was able to do it by following the following link -> http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=customer_service&trk=hb_ft_faq&goback=%2Ehom
Saturday, 2. May 2009
Thank you James- I was looking for a way to remove some connections and you had it right there. Thank you, thank you!
Linkedin hasn’t done anything for me other than help me define what I want- which is of value, yes, but not what I joined for. I only accept invitations from people I know and whose work I know and can recommend. I only have 25 connections and that’s fine. My sister, who works in IT, says she uses Linkedin exclusively to recruit people for her department. I go into modes where I clean up my profile but I really think it’s a total waste for me- my career focus in pretty specialized so maybe that’s why. The best thing I get from the site is the groups- there are some really great ones out there and since they’re interest-focused, it’s at least relevant to me. Whatever…