Linked-In was off line a few night ago. But here in Israel the day already started. I headed to the Linked-In Blog. What a wonderful surprise. Besides the clean design, the articles on the applications now in development was great to read. After a few years of working with Linked-In, I was not sure what direction the site is taking. There are many ways to use business networking, now that social media is becoming a popular way to communicate, there are many things I wanted to do with Linked-In. What the third party developers are doing is not all I wanted, but it is certainly changing the way Linked-In can be used. Also, Linked-In is setting an example on how to integrate all kind of applications into one page. Not an issue if you have your own blog, a big development team. For most people, even part of large companies, it is useful to has a simple way to show your work. Having all these elements into the personal Linked-In page gives networkers in your field a better way to see who you are. This is what I see the value of the new tools are all about.
As a blogger, I read and see blogs all day long. Once in a while I see something interesting or useful. The Linked-In blog focuses on applications and a few stories from life in the company (the San Francisco Bay to Breakers race is a real fun event.) What developers often struggle with is picking an audience. Would end users of Linked-In read the blog? Would you be able to use the blog for informative and easy to use articles? What about developers, partners, professional users (recruiters in the case of Linked-In)? Blogging is a long range commitment. It is also a project that needs writing to interest or be useful. With massive amount of reading available on the Internet, only material relevant for readers would be actually read. Only really useful material will be passed to other people and marked for future use.
In the case of Linked-In there are a few topics I would suggest. First of all, even active users are not clear of the policies and intended use of the service. Once when I was expanding my network connections I was “banned” from future invitations from groups. This was when groups were new. I was not sure who clicked the “I don’t know” button. I was also not sure how many times people clicked the button and in what groups. The policy of how Linked-In works is guess work. Another related topic is how to “recover” old invitations. Today I do not have a way to invite people through intermediary connections. Apparently I have used all my invitations and I don’t know how to recover them. Both of these issues are small, but certainly annoying. (I finally figured it out, but had to sort through a few hundred invitations.)
Articles about use or what other users do is also relevant to Linked-In. I see recruiters who post job notices on groups. I also see marketers who sell their systems for Internet promotion and other services. That is fine with me. A professional social network is for more than just sharing tips, professional techniques and connecting with potential partners, customers and suppliers. Even in daily life we all have an “elevator pitch”, the 1/2 minute description of what we do and how we can help clients. We all carry business cards and most of us use the back to jot notes, either when we give our card to someone, or when we get one and want to remember what was said. So once in a while sending a message about a new service or updating with the latest company news is a great way to use Linked-In. This is what social networking is all about, keeping contact with people who are interesting.