There are a lot of ways for businesses to dive into the social Web. If you’re interested in marketing to young people, you can delve into the social networky environs of Facebook or MySpace. If you’re more interested in communicating with a Web-savvy core constituency like shareholders or potential clients, then you’ll want to come to our upcoming conference and think about starting a blog.
But if you’re looking to reach out and establish your network and reputation as an individual professional on the Web, then you’ll want to consider LinkedIn as a first step into the social Web. I first became aware of this remarkable application of social networking through Todd Defren at PR Squared. Since LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to endorse somebody else, it allows you to demonstrate just how well-regarded you are by your peers. Defren sees this as a way to create a space on the Web to represent his professional reputation and allow it to evolve.
It also allows you to crawl out along your contacts’ networks to see who they know. Maybe a college classmate of yours now happens to be on good terms with the head honcho at Acme Widgets who you’ve been trying to get in touch with for months.
I’ve been told that the service works very well for some people, and not so well for others. But I’m willing to give it a shot and see where it leads. Still, I see it as a nice way to take a baby step into the social Web and see if it’s for you.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Sean 08.29.06 at 11:16 am
I have been using LinkedIn for a while now and it is an excellent, professional networking resource. If you happen to have alumni connections or association memberships, it is likely that LinkedIn has an ‘interest group’ you can become a part of. These groups are by invitation only, however.
Another benefit of the system is the ability to stay in touch with contacts, especially those who travel and work internationally. This is particularly useful for the international development field and the Foreign Service.
A word of caution, as other users have noted (per comments from the
InsidePR podcast #19, August 8, 2006), LinkedIn is not a substitute for actually calling and meeting with your professional contacts. What the LinkedIn service does is make it easier to remember who it is you need to stay in touch with and how their interests are related to yours.
ann michael 08.29.06 at 3:15 pm
I find it very interesting that LinkedIn is getting noticed now. A colleague of mine (who is often ahead of her time) sent me an invitation to LinkedIn about 3 years ago. I put up my profile, invited some people, and after a few weeks never looked at it again - until now. All of a sudden I’m getting invites and people are asking me if I ever heard of it. What happened? Did it hit the tipping point? Did it add features that attracted customers? Did it partner with someone? I’m really curious! I guess it’s time to update my profile.
Teresa Valdez Klein 08.29.06 at 9:09 pm
Sean: I couldn’t agree more. Social networking will never replace actual networking. It just gives you the opportunity to see how it all lays out. Also, it shows you who you might reach by just one degree of separation from the people you already know. I think that’s a crucial value add.
Ann: Why yes, I think it did hit a tipping point along with the rest of the social Web. The Facebook and MySpace have been around for about three years, too. They’ve only hit the MSM in the past few months. If that’s not a tipping point, I don’t know what is.