LinkedIn

Networking is an important part of making contact. In fact it's probably how most deals come into being. We buy from people we trust and we can only trust them by getting to know them. Increasingly, this trust is being established electronically. Perhaps through a blog or perhaps through a trust-based linking service like LinkedIn.

Turns out that my 45 LinkedIn contacts have generated a network of 627,000 people. It would be nice if one or two offered me some work, but this doesn't seem to be how the system operates. Puzzled at the deathly silence, I decided to write to my contacts to find out their experience of LinkedIn. Twenty one have replied so far. For many the result was similar but, equally, some found it very useful.

Rather than try to interpret the results, I have categorised the responses by country and by number of LinkedIn contacts for each group (in brackets). The total contributions adds up to more than twenty one because some people made more than one comment.

One thing which became clear is that the US is far more enthusiastic about this sort of activity. Two people - both Brits - but one working in France, the other in the USA - made this observation.

Here goes then. Interpret as you see fit and, if you have something to say, please feel free to comment.

Better for US - one France (32) and one US (130)
Waste of time - one UK (62)
Silent - four UK (80) and one Sweden (39)
No time to investigate/Unsure of benefits - one UK (2) and one Sweden (39)
Reticent/selective - four UK (90) and one Sweden (39)
Occasional use - four UK (192) and one US (76)
Receive invites - four UK (80) and one France (13)
Used as go-between - one UK (79) and one US (130)
Useful for search - four UK (151), one France (2) and one US (130)
Have to be proactive - two UK (164)
LinkedIn is the best - one US (130)

The last person had conducted extensive research last year into the different suppliers.

I dare say that if I fed all the answers back to all of the participants, the numbers in some of the categories would swell.

PS Although I wrote to people for purely personal reasons, I was so intrigued at what I discovered, I turned it into a post. One person said "I didn't know you were doing research for publication". I explained and she was fine about it. But if anyone who wrote to me is unhappy with this post, please let me know and I will blank it immediately. Thanks.

Comments

[roger]

Well - it does seem like a bit of a waste. Maybe we all need some educating. Perhaps you should do the same for Plaxo?

[Konstantin]

Two of the answers are especially interesting and ring true to me: "occasional use" and "have to be proactive."

LinkedIn is a bit like a phone book--utterly useless until you need to reach someone. So, unless you are a recruiter, job seekers, market research anlyst or other person who frequently needs to get in touch with new people for your job, for most people, LinkedIn is going to be of occasional use. But probably quite valuable when you do have the need. Once you have your network online and you need to reach someone, I think a simple search will show that you very often find a person who is a good fit (this wasn't true 12 months ago). Also, if you put together a decent pitch and the person who knows you gives you a decent recommendation along the way, your chance of reaching the person who has something you want (some infomation, a job, etc.) is very good. We do get that feedback very often.

However, we also do get the feedback that people signed up, accepted invitations and then are disappointed that no great investment, job, business deal or client offers came their way.

While it happens quite often that a great and unexpected opportunities "hits" a user, the chances that it is going to hit one particular person (among our currently 2.4 million users) is generally quite small. Generally, you have to use LinkedIn proactively to get the benefit of leveraging your network more effectively.

For example, you have to be connected to people who know you well and who are tied to the types of opportunities in which you are interested. Often, those are not the people who invite you. You have to seek them out.

Also, you won't be found if your profile does not match the keywords used by someone looking to hire someone with your experience or skills.

The most everyday (every week) value we hear from users are a kind of feeling of "insurance," reconnecting with former co-workers and having access to up-to date addresses. Also, for users where reltionship management is a key part of their job, a lot of them report that they are saving tons of time by managing these relationships (especially requests for introductions) more effectively.

-Konstantin (https://www.linkedin.com/p/kguericke)

[David Tebbutt]

Thanks for that Konstantin. As a co-founder of LinkedIn, no-one could know the subject better than you.

[David Topping]

I read Konstantin’s comments with interest and, unnatural though it may seem for me to promote an IT service I don’t actually work for, I do have a number of favourable thoughts on LinkedIn which I’d like to share.

First; as stated, at the very least LinkedIn is one of the very best ways of finding and staying in touch with former colleagues. I know there are a number of systems offering a service which keeps e-mail addresses up to date by storing them on a server outside an e-mail address book. What they don’t offer is the facility to look up names and match them to former colleagues by comparing previous work experience. This alone I find worth the effort (which is very little) of joining.

Second, and from a personal point of view far more important, as a job seeker I’m finding that the job market has fundamentally changed. For the last 10-15 years jobs have come through a relatively small number of head-hunters. Either they contacted you or you made sure that your details were registered with them. Now however there are a) a huge number of head-hunters and b) jobs are promoted through a vast number of different media; employment websites, the press, company websites and so on. At the same time, and I suspect this has always been true, the most senior jobs tend to come and go through word of mouth or genuine searches conducted by a small number of executive search firms.

In this latter case I feel that LinkedIn is essentially extending that personal network into an electronic medium. My own experience is that while I haven’t found a job through LinkedIn I have nonetheless been approached three times for potential jobs and have managed to track down a fourth contact regarding a job. This compares very favourably with my efforts through registering on specific recruitment websites or with recruitment firms.

Finally; as an information or research tool, for who’s who, mainly in the IT world, LinkedIn is extremely useful.

Almost as an afterthought I should point out that I’m a sucker for a slick and attractive user interface and I actually enjoy using the website simply for the clarity of its layout and the commonsense way users access the various different facilities, from uploading and managing your e-mail contacts through to managing your network.

In summary I would have to agree with Konstantin, LinkedIn cannot be considered a primary promotional medium for goods or services, however like a phone book, if you want people to be able to know about you and contact you it would be stupid not to have an entry.

[Dave Snowden]

One of the problems is that it fails to recongise the realities of human trust and endoresement. I have adopted a policy as follows:
1 - I will accept anyone as a contact rather than cause offense
2 - I will not given anyone an endoresement, its much easier that way and avoids making things visible that are better private
3 - I will pass on any request for a contact but with a note to say that I am making no comment positive or negative on the link
So as a glorified contact address list it may be useful to me some day (I can see that it has been useful to people in my setwork), but as a replacement for conversation, never

[Al]

I just joined LinkedIn last week. Since then I have actively added connections, sent out invitations and filled out my summary to near completion. It is almost like a CV online combined with a social network.

I have had the following positive experiences:

1) I have connected with people I respect/like that I have not spoken to in ages

2) I have connected to some fascinating people that I did not appreciate in the past (I love the idea of looking at CVs of people I work with and finding out what they think they are capable and where they have worked.)

3) I have even been approached to discuss my 1997/98 Masters Dissertation with someone in California.

# of job offers = 0
# of job offers sought = 0
# of £s made = 0
# of £s sought = 0
# of new connections / deeper connections made = countless
Lifetime value of those connections = unknowable but greater than 0

At the end of the day I think it is to be treated as a longer term play than just a 'position wanted' bulletin board. LinkedIn therefore totally works for me.

Cheers

Al

[Steven Burda, MBA]

Good read, Thanks!

Steven Burda, MBA
www.linkedin.com/in/burda

e-mail me to connect:
steven.burda.mba @gmail.com