How do you use LinkedIn?
How do you use LinkedIn, if you use it? What are your likes / dislikes?
Likes:
* Personally, my favorite feature is the most underpublicized: It's a dynamic rolodex so I can track my contacts wherever they go. The value in that feature is so intrinsic that I think it's forgotten....but no longer do I get bounced emails after someone switches companies.
* I participate in the LI Answers section, and I have made some excellent contacts via Q&A discussion.
* The profile area is ample for maintaining an online resume. If I ever wish to direct someone to my CV, I can provide my LI public profile link.
Dislikes / feature ideas
* I would like to annotate my own information about each contact in my list. For example, how I met Mark, or when was the last time I had lunch with Bob. Personal notes for me to refer to.
* Their categories for Q&A are....not always useful. I think they ought to move to tagging. It's more robust and less effort on their part (i.e. no valiant effort required to categorize the world; let the world categorize itself.)
* The LinkedIn Groups functionality is lacking. I know this first hand. There's no comprehensive list for all LI Groups; a few members have attempting compiling lists external to LI, but they're not complete.
Matt
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I would echo most of your feature ideas. I'd like to go one step further on the annotation of contacts to be able to "rate" my contacts so that searches could be weighted based on how strong the links are.
One frustration as an unpaid member is that there are a lot of people I genuinely know, but don't have an email to so I can't contact them. Other than paying for InMails or whatever I am not sure how to get around that. I'm pretty good at searching online to find people if they have an online presence.
It also seems like there are a lot of people who sign up for LinkedIn and then never come back and check, as I see people who I know with one or two connections that never respond to connection requests. I'm not sure what LinkedIn can do about that though.
If anyone here is interested in connecting, my contact email is in my LinkedIn profile.
Regarding the issue of connecting with people you know on LI, I think when viewing their profile, you can click "Add to your network". You're then able to specify how you know the person, and LI will send an invitation on your behalf to connect. It works that way for me, anyway. About 6 months ago, you *did* need the person's email address to send the invite; at some point, it changed.
Otherwise, you can use your invitations to get introduced. I've done that before countless times to reconnect with someone I knew.
Note that I'm not a paid subscriber either.
My other LI pet peeve: the "Answers" section is not NEW anymore.
Matt
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Here's another wish for the LI Wishlist:
* Ability to bookmark LI Answers for future reference. That is, maintain a list of questions/discussions I thought were interesting, within LinkedIn. Right now, I have to bookmark them in my browser.
Matt
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I think my top linkedin related wish at this time would be for them to beef-up the functions of the groups. I'm not sure why they don't do this sooner rather then later. It would allow/make many people spend more time on the site....helping them make more money off of advertising.
My top wish already got realized... plaxo integration.
LinkedIn does nearly nothing for groups. It's stupid, in my humble opinion. There are groups of people who are coalescing around the theme of their site (networking), forming on their own volition, promoting LinkedIn along the way....and LinkedIn Corporate does nothing to help them. In fact, LI goes so far as to charge for having a LI group posting inserted into their group directory. So all the group founders end up creating an external directory of LI groups.
Idiotic.
Matt
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Yeah, it does seem like LinkedIn could make better advantage of groups. I'd love to be able to organize my contacts based on groups for example.
I'd love to be able to organize my contacts at all. It's crazy - despite LinkedIn's lack of customer focus (again, IMHO), they are still flourishing. This is as maddening as a millionaire who keeps winning the lottery.
Don't get me wrong - I think LI is a fantastic tool in the networking / career management arsenal. I have a vision for where LI should be heading, and instead I feel like they are floundering (yet prospering) in spite of it.
Matt
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Is is necessary to have a paid Linkedin subscription or can you still function with the free service? Are folks here paying for it or using the freebie?
No, for me there's no need to pay for a subscription. I think some recruiters + staffers may upgrade their accounts (for InMail contact without an introduction), but even then I'm not sure if many do this.
That's what I thought, subscriptions are for the heavy hitters.
linked is not for everyone
http://www.linkedin.com/in/banderson
What do you mean?
I would like to see the abilty to link it with my email, PIM and edit the contact info I keep
You can do this dsmith.
# Sync Outlook with Plaxo.
# Sync Plaxo with LinkedIn.
# Run Plaxo De-Duper to merge LinkedIn information with existing Outlook contacts, and choose what information updates/is changed.
# Outlook syncs automatically with Plaxo upon changes.
You can even throw Salesforce in to this mix if you want and it will synch along with Plaxo and Outlook.
Your potent triad for success, the veritable "axis of success" is linkedin + plaxo + salesforce ... get this banging away and you'll conquer the world .
Likes:
* Answers, Groups, Profiles (Resumes), Connections (Rolodex), and Recommendations are the best features.
Dislikes / feature ideas
* I would like to be able to introduce someone to another contact, rather than just being able to forward a profile to someone.
* Inbox could be a bit more organized.
* No central Outbox/Sentbox is currently available.
right now I use it like a rolodex. I do take advantage of the job listings also. I'm not sure what else you can really do with it unless you pay.
Also, if you are on LinkedIn and have former coworkers, write a recommendation for them. Most of the time they will return the favor. I have only written a couple of recommendations but have a list of people to write for.
Valerie Dennis
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/vcd0826
Blog: http://thinking.ivalerie.com
Good ideas, Valerie. I primarily use LI as a rolodex, but I would also suggest plugging ito the LI Q&A / "Answers" area. Write a question (about almost anything), and the group will respond, or answer others questions. Works remarkably well.
I use LinkedIn to *find* other people; I do not use it for me to "be found", which is passive. The purpose of getting new connections is to have access to their contact lists. People on LinkedIn are generally predisposed to networking and accepting invitations, otherwise they wouldn't be on the board. Get a new contact and then mine their connections for other people who might be able to help with your job search. Occasionally I get a valuable response with further contact information at a target company. Once your initial connection and his/her network is exhausted for you, move on to the next one. It's virtual cold calling.
As for lacking email addresses of people you would like to send an invitation to, the common "trick" is to include your email address somewhere in your visible profile. When enough people do it, access is easier.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/1/273/101
You are right about the email address. Mine is in my LinkedIn profile for those who look closely.
I think being found is almost as important as finding other people sometimes.
However, at this point after 5+ unsuccessful years I've more or less abandoned active job searching and gone back into hibernation mode until something good happens along or my current job goes away and I'm forced to start looking again.
I recently added my LinkedIn address to my business cards.
I'm looking for a job. So when I meet a recruiter or people I would like to link to, I give them my card with the address on it.
It's easier than carrying my resume with me ;)
I haven't bothered with real "business cards" for quite some time since my company doesn't supply them to "non-sales" people and I don't have any compelling reason for personal cards. When I do need them (for a happy hour or whatever) I generally just print some on those perforated Avery ones. I know they aren't very "professional" but I guess I am at the point that if someone rejects me just because of something as superficial as that I've probably dodged a bullet anyway.
Anyway, the last ones I've printed generally just had my name, "Software Developer" and my email address. Its not hard to find me on LinkedIn from that, but adding the URL for my profile probably isn't a bad idea just to remind people to look I guess.
A friend of mine told me had 1,000 business cards printed at Office Max for $19.99.
I spent a little more on mine because they're color. But you really can't beat the price. For me, it's worth it to try lots of different things to get my name out there.
I can understand that if you are actively seeking it may be worth it. I've pretty much given up and gone back into hibernation mode until either the job market turns around or I get laid off and have to go out looking again. I will of course keep my eyes open, but probably not pursue anything very hard unless the opportunity is particularly good.
That's an excellent idea. Next time I have some made up, I'll do that as well. You're right - it's essentially a permalink to your resume (useful even if you're not looking for a job).
Exactly! It's an easy way to filter people to your LinkedIn page. In your case, people would see links to your blog and website. So it really serves many purposes.
I have found Linkedin to be useful for networking. I generally have had quite a few recruiters find me that way, some quality and some not so much. I have also found and been found by old co-workers and friends.
I really use mine to force me to update my resume as well as to provide links to my blog, etc.
I also like the group feature. Being able to setup Linkedin groups so easy and run it for free (knock on wood) has been a great way to find like minded people.
i would love for there to be a way to indicate that i am not interested in being contacted by "open networkers", beyond just ignoring the invites.
You could try putting it in one of the text parts of your profile, although if they don't read it all or choose to ignore it, then it won't make a difference.
I have tried stating that I'm not an open networker (in the LinkedIn sense) at the bottom of my profile. However, it doesn't seem to make a difference. Look at the bottom of my profile to see what I'm talking about.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mgenovese
(As an aside, be careful when putting your LinkedIn profile URL on your business card. At the moment, you need the "www" in front of it, otherwise it doesn't work. For example, "linkedin.com/in/mgenovese" takes you to the main LinkedIn page, not my profile.)
FWIW, I don't see that note if I just click on that link, I have to click the "view full profile" button, then it is there.
I guess I'm too much of an "open" networker for most people on the forum because I'm directly linked to surprisingly few other than recruiters around here.
Here's a way around that issue. You need something that states that you are not an "open" networker at the top of your profile. You're giving people too much credit. Very rarely will they read a profile all the way through.
There's a section at the top that people can update weekly. Basically, it's a way to update people on what you are working on. "What you are working on" is displayed under your name and what you do. That being said, you would just need to update it once a week because LinkedIn removes "What you are working on" around Sunday night.
If that doesn't work, I would find another place at the top where you can make your feelings about open networking known.
I hope this is helps!
Matt:
He's right...the only way a person can see that you aren't an oper networker is to click on the full profile view.
I'll look and try to figure out a way for you to get your point across:)
Yes, that is true. Well, I suppose having the text in my profile (albeit at the bottom) is akin to the small print in a contract. I can just point someone to that text when declining an invite.