Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

One thing I really love about LinkedIn is that it is centered around *work*, and I can specifically endorse people based on ACTUAL experience I've had with working with/for them, and they can for me. To me, this has a high level of credibility.

I am not sure yet about the rest of it, but because of the high credibility level, I think it's promising.

Chris,

What has that meant to you or your business so far.

As a student looking for my first job out of college, I joined LinkedIn because it focuses on networking and building business contacts. I agree with Chris in that it maintains a high credibility level. In my experience so far, I have not received anyone trying to establish a connection or recommendation from me without personally knowing him/her. Also, there are no sections for your weekend photos or your favorite movies; it is about your education, experience and contacts. While I do not have a success story to share with you yet John, perhaps in a few months I will be able to tell you about LinkedIn's positive effect on my career search.

I have a very specialized "niche" in IP dispute resolution and linking with others in a "community" is extremely important.

So far, I have had one indirect referral from it - a client referred by a contact on LinkedIn.

Although listed in LinkedIn for quite a while, I only expanded my network (from 6 to 45 plus) since early January so that's extremely good.

But really isn't it just another "tool" in marketing tool box?

I've never made any valuable connections on LinkedIn. I always seem to just waste my time there. I'm sure some people have made it work, but it's just never been good for me. On the other hand, I'm an avid reader/member of younggogetter.com and have made a ton of valuable contacts there and even started a few businesses with other members.

To each his own, right?

I have friends that have used it successfully for hiring, but I've noticed people already burning out on that. It's been useful for networking to catch up with some people that had fallen off the radar, but aside from that it hasn't put any cash in my pocket personally.

Well, Guy Kawasaki says it's a good idea, so it must be.

Can't say I've exactly found a use for it yet, but it seems like fun. In a way that I can pretend is 'work'. (Unlike, say, Friendster)

I have found it somewhat useful. I haven't had any "success" through LinkedIn yet, but I'm hoping it will be another check in my favor.

The biggest problem is that many people see invitations to join as spam or just don't know what to do with them. Thus, many of my current contacts and current/past co-workers, employers, etc aren't actually on there.

I have to agree with many others, it's useful for keep up with former colleagues and soliciting testimonials. I have also used it for research on newly acquired clients to gain some background on their professional history prior to your consult. So on some levels it does have its usefulness, but for the complete "networking" aspect...for me the jury is still out.

I wrote a bit about LinkedIn on Bad Language a while ago: http://www.badlanguage.net/?p=175. In response to your question, I thought I'd expand a bit on my experience.

My experience with LinkedIn wasn't great. The few people I tried to contact had out of date bio information and had all left the big-company marketing job that they said they were in (and were all now operating as consultants in my field!). I also had a couple of people try to link to me who I knew but didn't want to give access to my my network - which is sort of embarassing. Then there was the guy whose bio was really cool but I didn't know him. When I linked him in, he turned out to be a multi-level marketing salesman. Trying to get LinkedIn to unlink him was very painful indeed. All in all, LinkedIn hasn't been useful and, in some ways, has been a really pain. That's just my two pennies. I respect Guy Kawasaki and trust his judgement and instincts but I think he's wrong on this.

Ironically, blogging and having a good personal website (and an easily Google-able surname!) have done more good for my networking than any networking site.

I joined LinkedIn at the request of my manager... just for easier professional networking. I connected to her, the CEO of my company, and a few other coworkers.

Now, I'm getting job offers... and requests for connections from past colleagues. And I can see what they're up to. I think I like it a lot better than the traditional exchanging of business cards (which I inevitably lose).

I only started seriously using it last week after noticing that more people I know are actually using it. So far I've been contacted with a couple of opportunities, but only time will tell.

John--
I'm a late adopter of new technology, always suspicious of the staying power of certain new programs or trends. So I wasn't the first in my network to see the value of Linked In. But after hearing about it from a couple of very successful businessmen and women, and networkers, I thought I'd give it a try. And as I've said many times at my blog, including http://cmaccess.net/2006/12/19/linking-in/ --I believe Linked In is a convenient, thorough way to have an online presence in a world where that side of your identity is becoming increasingly important. And some quick tips come up in more than one place: it's about quality not quantity, it's about giving not just asking for, and you have to keep the content up-to-date. It's terrific for research as Renee says above. I say check it out!

LinkedIn for me has been one of many experiments that never seemed to go anywhere. I see it as one of many promising tools offered by the "Web 2.0" Gods.

I would imagine that one has to work this tool very regularly to get much out of it. Like so many other web-based, free tools out there, it's easy for LinkedIn to slip off my radar screen for weeks at a time.

It does a good job at keeping your "rolodex" up to date for the folks in your network. I rely on it to keep my classmates and colleagues apprised of changes in my phone number or email address.

However, it's not a silver bullet that will automate networking and lead to tons of jobs/prospects. Using their friend-of-a-friend system is pretty much equivalent to cold calling, except with the added frustration that it's email (and therefore impersonal). Additionally, LinkedIn emails get gobbled up by spam filters as often as not, so a lot of introduction requests don't even get to my friend in the network, let alone to the person I want to reach.

Relationships/networking are based on personal contact and have to be nurtured. This just can't be automated.

What I can recommend is using LinkedIn as a database of who your associates/friends KNOW. Then call the friend directly and ask for an introduction. No spam filters, it's personal, and you'll get better results.

I've also had a handful of long-lost friends and colleagues reach me via LinkedIn, which more than justifies the time I put into it. I think it's a fine thing to set up a profile, but take it for what it is. Something may filter through that interests you, and it costs nothing to set up a net to catch that lead. But keep your involvement to five minutes every quarter to update your profile and leave it at that.

I think that LinkedIn "could" be good if it actually "did" something for my business. I find that what often happens with any sort of networking program is that you sign up, all ready to meet new people, set up your profile with zestful energy and then... you wait... and nothing happens. I haven't been excited over the events that have taken place over at LinkedIn. I do better networking through blogging and commenting on other people's blogs.

My experience is that nothing happens. But friends will ask me to endorse them (I've been asked to endorse colleagues I've never worked with!). I don't think about using it as a resource during my regular work day and have never gotten a lead from it.
The one positive is that if you update your profile, info does get sent out to your group. (Which could be good for you/annoying to them?)
Interesting to hear the positive experiences!

My brief experience and impression was that it was better suited for people in the tech and consumer electronics products/services industries. I come from marketing and design in the consumer products/ retail sector. Most people I know aren't familiar with LinkedIn. However, they are very familiar with a huge trade show company ECRM and the unique online community they run.

I agree with Erin - more of a relationship building experience. Also attending the dreaded networking events has been all I've needed to keep my leads/jobs coming in through the 7 years I've had my own company.

I'm always left scratching my head when I hear people say LinkedIn and Ryze are great networking platforms. Try as I might, I just haven't had that experience.

LinkedIn is unintuitive and needlessly complex. I have yet to find any networks that hold any interest or professional relevance to me.

I think networking works best when there is some common basis for coming together such as a shared business model or interest in a field or industry.

Example: Retailers have different business conversations than professional service providers. And the interests and methodologies of those pushing MLMs and products don't often hold much real value or relevance to those offering services for a living.

And don't throw tomatoes at me, but I swear Ryze and places like that seem to attract a large contingency of goofballs and blowhards who are just there to "listen" to themselves ramble.

I swear to you, this is no joke--I once came across a network where there must have been 50 posts with everyone trying to out-drone each other about how THEY were the best Ryze networker because... (and then enumerating ad nauseum all the idiotic characteristics that made them the "best Ryzer").

Yck. I prefer finding industry association listservs and forums. Those have always and unfailingly yielded the most substantive conversations, and the best networking opportunities and connections.

Great questions. Overall my experience is very positive. I stick to the idea that it is, as designed, a way to organise my networking, as distinct from a way to network. And I'm very choosy about my connections. With many others, I do a lot of LinkedIn related networking on special interest Yahoo groups. Through my LinkedIn connection I have co-authored two books which are selling nicely, thank you, and more business is coming my way through LinkedIn. Today, from Australia's Gold Coast, via Skype, via Austin Texas, I was able to find 12 highly specialised people for a specific project being organised by another person in another US state. I am able now to recommend my contact to those people through a contact they know and trust. That's the power of LinkedIn. And yes, there are people who abuse the system and that's annoying, but LinkedIn, like life, is what you make it: it's a tool which can be used expertly and helpfully and if used inexpertly can hurt you (timewise, businesswise)

Like a lot of others I joined it thinking it would be great.

I eagerly promoted it to all my contacts, but apart from them signing up, they did nothing about inviting other people to join.

End result nothing happened. No real contacts over the past two years.

Pity, I think it's great

I have been a linkedIn member for two years, and have not yet received a valuable link. I have tried to market my online business, amiunderinsured.com for those individuals who want to find out how much insurance they actually need without having someone call them for a high pressure sale. I figured since the website was audio enhanced that it would get the linked in members a chance to listen to information about my ebook, yet I have not recieved any response from the members of linkedIn.

Des: How in the heck is that happening for you? How do you "use" LinkedIn? I think that's what is the mystery... THanks for any advice you can share.

Des,

I think you've been nominated to tell more. In fact, maybe I should set up an interview so we can talk this through!

I am a “NOT” person when it comes to LinkedIn. In my humble opinion it’s quickly become the “MySpace” for the work environment, while perhaps not as “racy”. First of all as far as the invitation to “link in”, seems more of an “endorse me and I’ll endorse you mentality”. Which brings to question the validity of the endorsements in general (I’ve heard the same sentiment from HR on this). I know a good dozen or so folks that jumped in on this band wagon – incidentally most of them have changed jobs over the last 2 years and not one of them has been able to report back that their “LinkedIn” compadres’ were of any assistance in making the connections, etc. However, that being said there is obviously positive feedback being posted here and what I’m getting a sense of is it’s how you use it. Optimizing it’s strengths and truly utilizing the connections. Funny, it sounds like LinkedIn maybe successful despite itself. Being that I’ve heard this debate in many professional circles though tells me that LinkedIn” obviously isn’t doing a great job of Marketing themselves and clearly defining for it’s purpose for “customers”. Imagine how successful they might become if they did.

I've used LinkedIn. It's not very exciting. There's nothing that really grabs my attention. I am looking to expand my network in Product Promotions and I found One Model Place and Myspace to be more useful than LinkedIn! Isn't that something? I go to LinkedIn and the people I try to connect with, I get "you aren't in my league" or some other rediculous thing. No one is willing to help out a young person trying to succeed on that site.

The question and answer section is boring and useless to me. I would rather use Marketingprofs.com forums for that stuff...at least they give you an incentive of gaining "points" for posting answers! Seems like LinkedIn is the same group of people who are just like me trying to make a big break into the industry...and when there's no real big guys, except for the cocky ones, in there, where does that lead us? A big road to no where.

All in all, I find it useless and another way for people to stalk me. =P

Who needs linkedIn when you can get this many commenters on a blog?
LinkedIn I'm on there but I see no benefit to it. It doesn't do the kind of relationship building that I prefer. Conversations and real, albeit slow, credibility growth

Fern and John
I don't have magic answers. What has worked for me is that through LinkedIn I have been able to connect with and be available to, a lot of very smart, very accomplished people of various ages and nationalities. And through the wider network which that has helped me build and the discussion groups, mainly on Yahoo, which I belong to, business offers have come to me and I've been able, as in the example above, to connect other people with one another.

Having your profile up to date is important. A lot of people neglect to update their profile and I've often been surprised to find that people who I know have great skills have joined LinkedIn but put no effort into their profile as a selling document. And it's really easy to get someone who knows you and your business to click on your profile and give you some feedback. The other day I helped a colleague re-write his profile to highlight his amazing skill set which he had not outlined so clearly.

Happy to be interviewed, John.

In the meantime, I recommend Scott Allen's excellent LinkedIntelligence blog for clues on using LinkedIn well - I doubt anyone knows LinkedIn, warts and all, better, and Scott is a great sharer. www.linkedintelligence.com

Denise
It's a shame you have not had a better response from people. I can assure you there are some quite active people on LinkedIn who are keen to help others use it well. For example the amazing Liz Ryan of WorldWIT - Women in Business and Technology. www.worldwit.org. And one of the best, well managed, discussion groups on LinkedIn to join is LinkedInnovators http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/LinkedInn.... Of course I can't promise there aren't some idiots there, but the discussions are civilized and mutually helpful.
I hope that helps.

I've recently started using LinkedIn but find it rather cumbersome to use. I've been able to reach out to some old friends, but beyond that, not sure what to do on the site. I agree with one of the comments above, to start contacting a friend of a friend feels a lot like cold calling, without the immediate hang up

I think LinkedIn has to be viewed from a different perspective. Its all based on your ultimate goal and in my case its pretty black and white. I've been a fan an supporter of LinkedIn since it's inception but my needs and goals work for me but may not work for you.

My primary use of LinkedIn is as a Headhunter or Recruiter. Hence, I don't view LinkedIn as a place to make trusted contacts as much as a place to 'find' contacts or gain exposure. Because of that my philosophy runs contrary to the concept of a trusted or known network. I want to have the greatest possible access I can as well as the visibility to be found by those looking for my services. Because of that I've built a network approaching 6,000 people - but I have both the access and visibility I'm seaking, meaning I can find others and be found. I have also used LinkedIn for other projects but again, the extent of my network was the big payback for me. Have I made money with LinkedIn. Yes, into the six figure realm but again I use it in a different way and use it every day.

LinkedIn has weathered internet-time very well, which is very positive. I've noticed more people using it recently than in the past. I look at it as a supplement to personal relationships.

I've had two cases where I was working with a prospect on a business deal, then the prospect disappeared off the face of the earth (they quit, got laid off, moved, etc). Used LinkedIn to find them again at their new place of employment, and then find out who took their place so I can get my conversations going again. Ultimately, no success yet. I'm still in talks. But it was useful for tracking down leads that went cold.

Ben - thanks for the GREAT tip. I do sales for one of my clients and that often happens with the people we were working with (my client is a copywriter and we work with corportate marketig managers). Thank you!

[John...thanks for bumping up the size.]

I don't know how many invitations I've received from LinkedIn over the years. Each time, I've asked the sender why they like the service and what was the value. No replies until two weeks ago. Nick Wilson gave a good enough reply that I told him I would give it a whirl. I was also interested in the new Answers service.

I've been using it a week and have come to the opinion it can be a good and valuable tool provided you know how to use the system and spend time with it. Two big "if"s.

The immediate problem I see is the site gives little guidance to the new user. They should provide a series of tutorials or demos to guide people along. Otherwise, new users end up clicking items in the wrong order and questioning why they have to upgrade their account.

There is a Customer Service/FAQ link way down at the bottom that shows 10 questions. It also is in a box that looks like it might be for sponsored listings. Since I couldn't find the online help I was looking for, I sent an inquiry to the company. It's been a week and no reply.

There is a section called Answers which does have a category for "LinkedIn" where I could post a question. I didn't see any area where I could search through existing questions so I didn't have to scroll the lists. Maybe that feature is there, but I couldn't find it.

I did reply to one person's question on web hosting and my answer got voted "best answer". The poster sent a "thanks" which arrived in my email. Interestingly, the sender's address is a no-reply one for LinkedIn so my reply got bounced back to me.

I do like the concept and the information you see. I find it valuable to connections, but it's not always a true representation of the member's activity.

I sent a number of emails to people that I thought used the system based on the number of connections they showed. More often than not, these people accepted invitations, but didn't use the system.

I think for these systems to work, they need to be drop dead simple so that anyone can use them. I don't think LinkedIn succeeds in that area. Once you log in, there are too many choices for the user. I think a similar problem exists for a prospect as I don't think the home page adequately defines what benefits I might receive.

I realize that these systems do require me to "work" to get value, but the design and lack of support add an extra layer that may keep me away. If I stay, it will probably be for the "Answers" area.

LinkedIn is almost like facebook for adult/professionals except with all the fun sucked out of it. It's a good idea I guess.. Its a little scary since it shows up when you google yourself.. More security on it would be nice, also room for a little more creativity on the part of the user would be nice as well. However, just because of this post I will be withdrawing myself from LinkedIn.. :-D

I have had great success with LinkedIn. With the new Answers feature I am able to ask a question and get feedback directly from the network. It' pretty sweet.

There is also an interesting podcast with Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn on Venture Voice. It's about 45 minutes long. You can see the notes at the link below.

http://www.venturevoice.com/2006/11/vv_show_40_...

The LinkedIn toolbar for Outlook is one of the more useful features for me. It keeps my contacts up to date (if the contact is also in LinkedIn) and is less annoying than Plaxo. Also, I can set reminders to contact people after a set number of days and it tracks e-mail that needs a response or follow-up from me. All very helpful for me.

John,

I've been using LinkedIn for several years now and the number one reason I use it is to keep up with where former colleagues are. Working in high tech, people tend to move around a bit and **assuming they update their info**, LinkedIn provides a great way to get the best and current way to contact them.

Yes, if they have blogs or personal web sites, I can also find them there - but not all contacts have those. (Nor do I always know where their most current blog or website is.) Google searches are useful, but anyone who has been online for a while accumulates all sorts of pages that may or may not have the correct contact info. For me, LinkedIn has served this purpose as a current directory wonderfully - again, assuming my contacts update it with their info. Most of mine actually do, so it has generally worked for me.

I've not personally used the site to find contacts for business deals, etc., as my work right now doesn't really require that. However, I know people who have used it to find interview guests for podcasts and partners for writing opportunities, so I see the potential there.

Thanks for asking the question and generating this great stream of comments.

<pingback>...ago I asked readers to tell me how and why they used LinkedIn. The response was awesome. Here's the original post and comments
The conversation fell out somewhat as I anticipated. Many people just didn't seem to get much out of it. Successful users ...</pingback>

I would use the old saying, "You get out what you put in." I would've agreed with some of the negative comments made a couple of months ago when I was waiting for others to initiate contact with me. Now that I've turned my approach around and initiated contact with potential buisiness partners, I'm experiencing better results.

I also wouldn't ignore those who have few contacts. It may be that the person is selective in who he/she will recommend, not that the person is less valuable than those with 500+ contacts.

Oh, and LinkedIn is good for seeing what kind of competition you're up against out there.

There are basically two types of LinkedIn users who can get value from it. The first is the active user, who makes a habit of searching and reaching out to people on a regular basis (for whatever it is they're looking for), participating in the Answers section by posting questions and answers, etc. Then there's the passive user who accepts introduction requests, forwards them for their connections, and only occasionally actually does a search in response to a specific need.

Both can derive value from LinkedIn. The former probably needs one of the premium accounts. The latter makes up 90-something percent of the network, and that can be accomplished with a free membership.

LinkedIn is one of the rare social networking applications I have seen that suits both types fairly well. I believe, in fact, that is precisely why it has attracted 10 million users -- because those of us who work 80 hours a week already and can only spend a couple of hours a week "networking" can still derive some value from it and be of service to our contacts without an implicit or explicit expectation of more participation.

But either type of user has to build their network in order to achieve that value. And I don't mean "build" in the sense of inviting strangers to connect -- I mean make an ongoing habit of identifying your connections within the system. Remember, 400,000 people a month are joining. It's ridiculous to think that all of your "real" contacts were members when you joined however many months ago, or to put the burden on them to find and invite you. At least monthly, you should be doing an update process to make sure you are maximizing your connectedness in the network.

Once you've done that, how you use it to help your business depends entirely on what your needs are. I wish I could say more on this here, but there is SO much to say in that regard. For now, I just refer you to the Using LinkedIn category (http://linkedintelligence.com/category/using-li...) on my blog for ongoing postings about ideas in that regard. Watch for more upcoming (podcast with John next week).

I think Anne's point is extremely well-taken. On the one hand, I think LinkedIn does a better job of most of doing some in-context help. On the other hand, that's very small-task-oriented, and using LinkedIn effectively is really a strategic thing.

I co-developed a course and offered it under their brand, promoted on their site, etc., a couple of years ago, and the response was good. But it was a pilot and for a whole variety of reasons, we never launched it full-scale. LinkedIn's position, which I understand, is that they want to have many people out there training on LinkedIn, writing books about LinkedIn, etc., rather than trying to manage all that in-house, or effectively giving a monopoly to one service provider.

Again, I understand that from their standpoint, but who really ends up suffering in the process is the new user.

There are PLENTY of resources, though, for those who choose to seek it out, which is why it always sort of amazes me when bloggers say they just don't get LinkedIn -- they obviously haven't really explored it or discussed it with people who know what they're doing with it.

There are several blogs that talk either extensively or exclusively about LinkedIn, and dozens of LinkedIn-related Yahoo Groups. The help is there for those who seek it -- it's just not as neatly packaged as it could be (yet!!!), and it's not being promoted to new LinkedIn users -- they have to seek it out.

I predict a lot of that to change in the next 6-12 months.

Just a follow up post to my earlier one on support. The email I sent to support on January 17th was responded to on Feb 1.

The tragedy is the info the support rep took the easy way out and didn't fully address my questions.

The info looked like it had been copied and pasted from a series of questions. There was no greeting or reason as to why it took 2 weeks to answer.

I hope the company will use the latest round of funding to build up support as it looks to me like a serious weak link in an otherwise good concept.

Below is another slant on LinkedIn from Jeremy Shoemaker.

I think his post emphasizes that with all services, there are good users and bad users. It seems he encountered enough bad users to post about the experience.

I'm still not familiar with all the LinkedIn features, but I wonder if there isn't a mechanism to provide feedback when these type of scenarios occur. I didn't see that option, but this may be my ignorance.

http://www.shoemoney.com/2007/02/02/linkedin-yo...

if u guys wanna see a really powerful business networking tool check out www.xing.com, the search functions are ridic, and the fact u can RSS feed about anything is slick too. enjoy!

My experience with linkedin has been absolutely atrocious. It seemed like a great idea at the beginning. I've entered all my information and contacts. Eventually I forgot about the profile as it didn't seem to help me in any way. Later on I realized that I've entered some personal information and decided to delete it. However that proved to be a bit more difficult than I've anticipated. Profile deletion only took a few emails to the customer support. However my name with some information is still displayed in the linkedin's directory and is cached by all the major search engines. After three months of battling linkedin I feel like I'm running out of options. Any ideas on how I can remove the information. Right now I'm contemplating legal action.