--- Why I LOVE LinkedIn ---

Why I LOVE LinkedIn --- Let me count the ways:

1. Personal Professional Web Site – it essentially allows a person to have a personal web site of sorts which tells everything (within a professional context) they want to reveal about themselves. This alone is awesome because I’m not a website developer and don’t have a clue where to start doing a website myself. You can post your professional bio or profile just like the big shots at the big companies do and can be found just as easily.

2. Researching and Reviewing – It allows you to see into a person’s background (at least as far as they want to let you go). I can go and remind myself about the background of someone I know (and often have a pleasant “oh yeah” experience), and even more importantly it allows me to check on someone I have to meet. I can then look for points of common interest or common connections which helps me to develop a rapport more quickly then the traditional method. It allows me to discover who we know in common. (“Hey he knows so-and-so too! How about that!) I meet a LOT of people so this is a god send to see all of this.

3. Discovery – It allows me to troll around for other connections. I can look at a company they used to work for and see that there are connections there too. I can see what their interests are and where connections should be made.

4. Identifies Good Networkers – It allows me to see who cares about networking and understands how to do it in the new model. I can tell that Joe who is very well connected but has only 2 connections on LinkedIn either is not interested (already achieved his success and sees no need to help others?) or he just doesn’t understand the value of Social Media Networking, or he just doesn’t understand technology well enough to use the internet at all. Some of them are too snooty to network online. Fine, I won’t waste my time on them.

5. Keeping Track of Old Friends – It let’s me keep track of people I know (or have known). I’ve been saving contacts since I owned my first Rolodex. It let’s me look up someone and say, oh yeah, I remember them. Or more often, wow they are in my list, but I don’t remember them at all. (That’s also where the headshot on the profile comes in real handy to remind me who’s who.) As my network grows, it lets me keep those connections close to me and go deeper into the relationships.

6. Visibility and Transparency – It brings into visibility that which was previously invisible. Where they worked, what their roles were, who they know, where they went to school, etc. This is the fulfillment of my dream of a fully augmented interconnection between people and machines. Our information is recorded and linked and made available for us to see. I see the world as a mass of interconnections and LinkedIn makes some of them visible. I believe it is the beginning of a new level of personal connections. Just as the web and HTML allows us to link to information, a site like LinkedIn allows us to record and expose the links between people using the web.

7. Electronic Memory - I like my computer and my ACT! Database. I’d love to have a PDA. I keep and scan every business card I receive into my computer, as a form of memory. When you network the old way, you get a few tid-bits from a discussion with the person, maybe a few more from asking a friend about them, but that’s about it. You have to remember all that, and you have to make all the connections in your head. And my memory isn’t as good as I would like so more often I miss a connection. LinkedIn is my electronic memory. In reviewing a person’s profile, I will remember other details about them.

8. Networking – In the end, isn’t all of this what networking is all about? I tend to see things very deeply. I tend to see connections other people don’t seem to see. I enjoy being a connection maker and helping people connect the dots. I see the future of information and LinkedIn will be a part of it one way or another.

9. Exponential Value – The value of networks grows exponentially based on the number of connections. There were 4 or 5 million people on LinkedIn when I joined a few years ago. Today, there must be about 22 million on LinkedIn and I’m within 3 degrees of 9 million of them. That’s Huge! Even if you go only 2 degrees away, I have access to 750,000 people from my 1800+ connections. (Even if you take away a third of those due to connections to people outside Colorado, that’s still a lot of potential personal introduction connections.)

Whether LinkedIn continues to snowball or not, a system like this will be a part of the online landscape of the future. There is no avoiding it. Systems like this are the future.

I love LinkedIn. I love using Social Media Networking sites to make connections with other people either locally or globally. I love to see that the world is getting smaller and we’re getting closer. I know that people buy from people they know and trust and I love how LinkedIn helps people know and trust each other. I love LinkedIn.

How do you Love LinkedIn?