If you’re anything like me, your experience with LinkedIn looks something like this chart illustrates, below. To be clear, I don’t consider myself a power user. I fully acknowledge that there are millions of people who have seen the potential of LinkedIn from the beginning, and have taken full advantage of every stage of its evolution. I’m just not one of them.
What is interesting is how LinkedIn has taken on renewed relevance for me, and I imagine a whole lot of other people. There was the initial excitement when I first signed on a few years ago, but it quickly became a place that I ignored for literally months at a time. Now it is close to a daily destination.
There were small things that added up to a larger sense that Linkedin was a place where attention must be paid. A few of those small, accretive moments:
- First was our experience in finding a new Managing Director for our San Francisco office. Greg Straface (more of a power user than me) at PJA used his LinkedIn network to identify candidates who had deep agency experience combined with significant experience in our tech and life sciences markets. The LinkedIn network is so ubiquitous by this point that he figured anyone we would consider a serious candidate would be on LinkedIn. He was right. We identified a great shortlist, and found our current MD through Linked In. It saved us literally tens of thousands of dollars on a headhunter’s commission.
Second was LinkedIn’s New York Times partnership that feeds customized content based on profile. It became harder to dismiss LinkedIn as purely a contact manager when it is partnering with the Grey Lady. (As a side note, I don’t know if this partnership is still active–if it is, I can’t find the LinkedIn brand on NYTimes.com nor NYTimes content on LinkedIn).
Third is a push from peers. Colleagues I respect are getting tremendous value from the network. Hilton Barbour (definitely much more of a power user) of our London agency partner Banner spends up to an hour a day posting to groups, answering questions relevant to his expertise is branding and demand generation. Hilton credits at least one piece of business coming directly from that effort.
So based on all this, my agency added a profile page. I joined a couple groups (CMO and Technology Marketing), started to use the TripIt and Company Buzz applications. I found myself sending out the occasional Inmail, and responding more often to the ones I get. I’m on LinkedIn almost daily now. I’m still not a power user, nor has it changed my life. But I would certainly count LinkedIn as one of the handful of communities I’m investing in, and getting some real value from in return.
The numbers support my anecdotal sense of LinkedIn’s new momentum–the site has doubled its traffic over the past year to over 10 million monthly visitors. LinkedIn has made it to my plateau of productivity, and has earned a place (alongside Twitter and Facebook) among the social media trinity.
Let me know your thoughts. Or at least invite me to your network. (Or follow me on Twitter at @motoole1)
Related posts:
Our “Not for profit” business support organisation is using LinkedIn to introduce SMEs to the world of social networking…and each other.
Our UK experience is that small businesses like the more conservative style of LinkedIn to begin with. They seem to migrate onto the more youthful, “funkier” platforms when they realise the possibilities that social networking and social media can bring.
Gareth
Mike -
Wonderful tool for getting answers to business questions, locating experts in any field, making new business contacts, connecting with former colleagues, and as you already stated searching for and selecting candidates to hire.
Happy to hear that you are using LinkedIn daily. I have found it to be very useful over the years and I see more and more business associates signing up all the time. I think it’s one of the best social networking tools around. I tend to use it and Twitter daily.
Hrrmm, I’ve only utilized LinkedIn thus far for clients and never actually invested in any sort of program for myself. Looks like I am going to have to go back and change that. Thanks, Mike!
Mike,
At the risk of being trite, the power of LinkedIn (or any other community) is the authenticity with which you contribute. Answering questions is both rewarding and illuminating as you quickly get a feel for like-minded individuals that can expand your network and braintrust. In this “Flat World” connecting and helping can be rewarding professionally and personally. LinkedIn has literally opened doors in LatAm and Asia that were never possible previously. See you in the discussion groups mate.
Linkedin is great, but too many people do not see the full power it can have. From positioning yourself as an expert or asking questions, it has the ability to professionally enhance any business.
Hilton,
Great point. I think LinkedIn tipped for me when it added conversation and content. And thanks for adding the point about the global utilitiy.
Wow… great information. I have high hopes for LinkedIn, although I’m not in a strong enough position within my chosen profession or, more importantly, within my marketing strategy, for it to be of perfect use.
Interesting comment, Lisa.
I’ve found that being active on LinkedIn has strengthened my position within my chosen profession because I have contributed to group discussions, and have made connections with industry leaders in my local area. It’s a nutritional supplement for your professional presence online.
I noticed that people generating bunches of recommendations or chasing many contacts all of a sudden are often looking for a new job.
I was also in a similar boat and have found the community side of LinkedIn as a big draw to the platform.
I’ve found a lot of value in the Answers section, providing ideas for other users, while being able to expand on my own thoughts and knowledge w/numerous topics ofinterest. The Groups have also been helpful (when done right), as I’ve communicated with like-minded folks under the same marketing ‘umbrella’, but from a slew of different industries and experiences; connecting me with a bunch of folks I otherwise wouldn’t have.
Edw3rd, I agree, the signal-to-noise ratio can be high on LinkedIn. Lots of job seekers and lots of people hawking services. Still interesting that the ticket into those conversations is content and expertise (to Sonny’s point).
I agree with Hilton. Any community is only as good as what you put into it. I was much like you with Linkedin. I have become more active with it as I found the groups, and have found a place to interact with other users. It’s been a great forum to learn about new technology that I can possibly use in business.
Mike,
I also followed a similar trajectory with my use of LinkedIn; now I am a daily user. Several of the above comments mention the noise factor, which I agree is definitely there. But, I also think that if your use of LinkedIn is for more than just keeping up with the Joneses and pushing your services, the noise will fall away. I wrote a blog post (http://www.newfangled.com/using_linkedin_for_professional_development) back in January about how we have used LinkedIn for information gathering, building groups, and even advertising and how those things have truly benefited our company and us as individuals. Also, I can’t say enough about the Q&A features. I ask questions all the time and am amazed at the frequency of thoughtful, helpful responses. I have an open question right now about the ethics of website user tracking- would love your feedback: http://www.linkedin.com/answers/marketing-sales/advertising-promotion/internet-marketing/MAR_ADP_INM/475285-9505648.
By the way, we’ve worked with PJA on several projects and they do a great job of integrating social media in to their day to day operation in a smart and authentic way. Phil Johnson’s blog at AdAge is also worth checking out. Thanks for a great post.
Chris
I love this analysis… I think #7 helps account for the people who don’t ever login (I’d guess the dip is deeper), and I don’t necessarily agree that LI is hitting a plateau, but the logic behind the analysis is very cool.
Also, in response to some comments about the value of LI being tied to what you put into it, and your authenticity, I agree up to a certain point. There are recruiters and sales professionals who don’t interact much with Answers or Groups but do a lot of searches and communicate with people one-on-one… interesting how different people can get different value out of the same tool.
Jason Alba
Author – I’m on LinkedIn — Now What???
Create of LinkedIn for Job Seekers, the DVD
I work in the Marketing department at LinkedIn, and I can confirm that our integration on NYTimes.com is live (you’ll find it in the top right corner on the Business and Technology article pages). We also have a broad-based partnership with CNBC (including joint polls, content and API integration, and more) that we announced last fall . For more information on all our partnerships, please visit http://press.linkedin.com/partners. Glad to hear that you all are such active users of LinkedIn!
Hi Mike,
I’m a fellow blogger at Mprofs and also happen to be the community evangelist at LinkedIn. Loved your post, which interestingly mimics my adoption of Twitter – in “small, accretive moments”!
LinkedIn was an easier sell for me, though.
Just started following you on Twitter. Feel free to follow me @mariosundar.
THanks for the great comments. Mario, I’ll definitely follow you. I’m @motoole1, for anyone who wants to follow me.
Chris, I’ve left a comment on your great question about tracking ethics (a topic woefully unrepresented on the twitter stream).
LinkedIn is one of the most powerful personal branding, career search and career development tools on the web today, not to mention one of the better business launch and development tools.
I have launched two web organizations on LinkedIn, found my job, established principal business partnerships, established my own personal brand, you name it, I have done it using LinkedIn.
I would recommend it to any professional, and the beauty of it is, LinkedIn keeps growing and getting better.
A “normal” adoption pattern with new communication technologies.
Thanks for the anecdotes.
Another useful area of LinkedIn is the Groups–I joined several groups, including my Northwestern University alumni group, and have found Groups a source of good information as well as a great way to connect and communicate through this vehicle.
Susan, I agree on the value of groups. In fact, it was taking the leap to join a few groups (and the subsequent new and Q&A that I monitored) that really began to crystallize LinkedIn’s new value.
I too had slowed my participation on LinkedIn until I got busy on Facebook. Now, I use LinkedIn and Twitter for my professional contacts/conversations and Facebook for friends, and spend about the same amount of time on all three. It’s an easy way to keep information that’s too personal out of my work world. There’s a bit of overlap in my contacts, of course, but no one ever seems to want to cross those lines.
I am still getting ready for my first life on LinkedIn. First it took me over a year before I finally signed up in May 2006. Then I just used LinkedIn every few months. Now that I see linkedIn profiles coming up in search engines in front of me for my target keywords such as my last name Windenberger, I am finally spending more time on the site and participating. And it looks like I am about to get my first piece of business as a result; someone wants to get my assistance with the Unconditional Freedom Process.