Mon, Mar 31, 2008
Posted to Miscellaneous category
I am in LinkedIn, which is an online networking tool for business and technical people.
I am terrible at networking, whether in meat-space or on-line. I'm convinced that the part of the brain that other people use for long-term storage of names and faces is being used for something else in my head.
Unfortunately, the kind of people I get along well with are also not extensive networkers. The few co-workers I remember from years ago and might be interested in getting in touch with don't show up in these environments. Some of them have names that are common enough that Googling is not useful. Some may not have made to transition to on-line, or used handles when they did so: even though they have uncommon names they don't show up in Google.
Today I brought up my LinkedIn profile and added all of my employers back to the Danbury Public Library when I was fresh out of Library school in 1977, and all three of the universities I have attended. Before today I only had the current company and, not the previous employer but the one before that, in my profile.
I sent invitations to a few people from the company I was working at before I started consulting in 2000, but for now I am mostly making my profile available for people to invite, if they want to. Having a fairly unusual name can be usefull in these contexts.
I am boggled by my contacts who have hundreds of contacts listed. I'm not quite as much of a hermit on-line as I am in meat-space, but I come close. Before today, my contact list barely reached double digits. (Shawn has 500 contacts.)
I suspect it requires a willingness to be agressive about asking for connections...
Eventually, I should probably enter my various consulting clients in addition to my actual employers.
Posted at: 10:38 pm MDT
Comments
Re: LinkedIn
Nanettewrote on Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:08
What the heck IS linkedin? I have had a couple people want to add me, but since I have at least as few connections as you.
Joke of the day. Lee and Miller are also having their 30th anniversary!! Very funny eh?
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Re: Re: LinkedIn
elysewrote on Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:00I just sent you another invitation. You might end up with a duplicate entry if the previous invitations were for your old email address.
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Re: LinkedIn
Shawnwrote on Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:51
I actually have 1086 connections, LinkedIn reports 500+, wish they'd fix that.
I spend about an hour a month trying to expand it. Mainly for the networking to help our company find contracts.
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Re: Re: LinkedIn
Elysewrote on Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:051086? Yow.
My problem is my memory for names is so bad I don't know whether I know the people on the lists or not.
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Re: Re: Re: LinkedIn
Shawnwrote on Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:01I don't know the majority of people on my connections. I figure the more people I network with the larger chance I encounter someone who I can help or can help us.
I don't invite many people, most of the connections I get are from the groups I join. I might seek out 5 people a month, most due to common interest like IBM Rational.
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