Strive Notes

I joined LindkedIn, the online social network about a month ago.  Since then, I’ve seen Stuart Bruce and Teresa Valdez Klein both writing about it on their blogs. So I thought I’d write an update on how my Linkedin experience has been so far. 

I joined on 29 July 2006 and have sent invites to about 30 of my contacts. Of those, 19 have accepted so far.  This gives me one degree of separation from more than 200 contacts and two degrees of separation from more than 47,000 contacts. 

Geographically, these folks largely based in the UK, San Francisco, New York City, Boston and Washington DC, but there are some individuals in India and Brazil.

The majority of my contacts work in software, IT and telco industries (quel surprize!).   But management consulting and marketing feature too.

LinkedIn has given me an excuse to reach out to some old friends and colleagues that I’ve lost touch with, and that’s the single best thing about it so far.  I haven’t figured out how to make it work as a real networking tool.  The site lets users find recommended service providers, but aside from that, I can’t find any other useful tools that would serve to open a dialogue with contacts beyond your direct network.  Perhaps bulletin boards might be a good place to start. 

Anyway, I’m not giving up on it yet.  Networks take time to build and LinkedIn is just one tool in managing relationships. 

Other posts on social networks that you might enjoy include

• Getting LinkedIn, when I initially joined.
• July 14th’s top 5, in which the NHL’s social net is discussed.
• Are you ready?  in which Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of MySpace is highlighted.

Filed under: public relations