I’ve tried. I’ve tried several times. And every time I try looking at LinkedIn I always end up staring at it and thinking, “What is the point?”
OK, I do get part of it, that it’s sharing your network of contacts so that everyone can benefit. But to me it seems like a lot of overhead for an as-yet-undefined benefit. It’s Yet Another Database To Maintain.
That, and I get frustrated because there doesn’t seem to be a neat way of saying that I’m a freelancer, working for myself and not a company, and that I want to connect to people in that capacity. See what I mean?
So are you using LinkedIn? How do you get value from it? What am I missing?
[Update 30 March 2011: I've closed comments on this post, and on the follow-up post, So LinkedIn is a giant Rolodex, eh? You can continue the conversation at my most recent post, Getting to grips with LinkedIn.]
Possibly related posts
Tags: freelancing, linkedin, social networks
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I pretty much agree with you. From what I can see, it’s largely used by people who want to be head-hunted out of their current position.
That’s without mentioning that the general design of the site is pretty awful and unintuitive (or is that just me?).
I too have a profile, but mostly it’s just another outlet to cross-post what I’m doing on my own blog and Twitter account.
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@Matthew Hatton: Someone just made much the same point about headhunters on Twitter.
I had thought it might be useful for keeping track of journalistic contacts — you know, being able to recall who I’d interviewed and so on, and find spokespeople. But then LinkedIn wants to charge money for sending an email. I can just search for people on the open web and contact them that way. Just adding notes to people’s entries in my Apple Address Book, which are searchable, would probably do the trick.
If I maintained that properly.
And the general site design doesn’t make sense to me either.
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I think it is a useful site for those wary and/or unskilled as yet in social media/new networking opportunities. It’s staid (clunky?) blue/white persona seems ‘hype-less’ & I think has a market that would be a bit lost in some other forums. It also attracts lots of new grads (often asking questions that they should have bought a book about), and recruiters of course, who can browse it easily like a resume. It does little except underpin who you are and open a few new channels for communication but has a place IMO. It gives some more info if you are meeting someone in other forums to expand your awareness of how they see themselves.
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LinkedIn could have become much more than plain emails or intros to the people you want to network with. To tackle this I recently launched LetsLunch.com. It’s like LinkedIn but with lunch.
Where we introduce you to people you should know over lunch and use algorithms to match you. We also use feedback from your peers plus social media profiles to build your true reputation.
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@Karen Dempster: Thanks for that comment. Perhaps you’re right, it really is a network-to-find-work kind of place. That’s not something I’ve been especially interested in pursuing. Maybe that’s a mistake on my part.
@Syed Shuttari: Would you have happened to find this post through a search so you could advertise your site? Perhaps you didn’t notice that I’m in Sydney and I’m not really in a position to have lunch with “the Movers & Shakers of Silicon Valley”.
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LinkedIn is where I ‘friend’ all those people I once worked with whom I didn’t have enough of a relationship with to add to Facebook, or catch up in the pub with occasionally.
It’s useful when you’re changing jobs, or even just going for your next contract because you can find contact details for that manager you had 7 years ago who you want a referral from.
What use is a referral from someone you have not worked with for 7 years? None if the world was sensible, but it’s not a sensible world. HR functionaries seem to delight in asking you to get back in touch with some line manager you worked for three jobs ago that you’d be quite happy to never think of again. Never mind that no one ever asks someone to do a referral unless it’s likely to be positive.
Of course, once you end up with all those contacts it’s a really bad idea to start posting your daily status to it, or linking it to twitter or Facebook, or having a moan about how you can’t get a job or hate your current boss.
So — just view it as a push-address-book, where the people in your address book update their own details, and that in itself is good enough for me to keep my LinkedIn account. I’ve found it especially useful for those former colleagues who are want to change their surnames every decade or so, you know… women who get married or divorced. They’re pretty had to find on Google.
Oh, and putting complete and honest employment info into your profile is just an invitation for headhunter types to pester you, there’s no crime in being a bit vague with your current employment details.
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As a freelancer and consultant, I find it really useful for keeping track of folks I worked with a few years ago who I might eventually want to hire or collaborate with. More of a rolodex than a social network, but useful for what it is. Doesn’t seem to offer anything over Facebook, but it’s nice to have one network for friends and another for colleagues.
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I think of LinkedIn as a site for people who aren’t doing well enough in their careers. So if you have a LinkedIn profile, by definition, you are not worth hiring.
I used LinkedIn once, in the early days, to sign on anonymously, and see all of my competitors’ contacts. It was a very helpful site for stealing business.
But not all people would agree with me.
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Wow this has triggered a lot more interest than I thought it would!
@Peter Viertel: Some good points there, especially on the theme of having separate social networks for different purposes — although for me the “keep the badmouthing off Facebook” doesn’t apply ‘cos that opinionated crankiness is part of my “product”, so to speak. Either that or I’m unemployable anyway.
I have my entire work history on my LinkedIn profile and haven’t received a single message from a headhunter. Unemployable it is.
@Mike Sententia: Ditto on the separate social networks.
@Bob: Gosh that’s a bit harsh, eh?
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Same here, LinkedIn doesn’t do me any good either. In fact, most of my colleagues hardly ever update their profile after the 1st time round. There is just something missing, and it just doesn’t work.
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Yes I do.
And it’s the #2 social network on the web.
Much more popular and useful than these links in your sidebar: Digg (Kevin Rose doesn’t use it) and Delicious (Yahoo killed it) and RSS (Robots Steal Stuff).
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I also am frustrated with LinkedIn. I just feel like it isn’t really trying so far.
For the last few months I’ve been working with two friends to create a more Portfolio-style site focussing on showcasing the things you have done instead of just listing them in a resume.
Try creating an account and posting some of your projects, startups, or jobs:
http://holono.com/If there are any features you would need to use it, please let me know.
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I though so too until I met my boyfriend. He and his buddies uses it a lot. I think it depends on what industry you work in.
They work in the 3D animation industry and they use it quite a bit to network with people in their industry, find jobs and get job enquiries (headhunters).
He and his friend got a job offer at LucasFilms through LinkedIn. His buddy got the job. I also have a friend who uses it a lot and he works in web and game design.
I work in the fitness industry and most fitness people barely know how to use social media and the internet properly so LinkedIn is no good for me unfortunately.
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@Ferodynamics: Well, just because something is the second most-popular doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to work for me. How does LinkedIn work for you? Looking for clients? Or…?
I must admit I had to look up who Kevin Rose was. Those link-to-me buttons were added ages back and I must admit they’re just hanging around ‘cos I’m slack about site maintenance. I’ve always doubted whether anyone gets any real value from them. I only chose that plug-in ‘cos it put the buttons way out in the margin where they didn’t look as ugly.
I don’t have the negative associations to RSS that you do. I’ve found it useful for getting my material indexed in news aggregators. YMMV, of course.
@Ozzie Gooen: Another found-through-search and plug-my-startup comment?
@Naomi: Interesting. I wonder if LinkedIn has particularly strong followings in certain industries.
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Don’t overthink it. It’s a Rolodex… that updates itself! I am living in the future!
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Yeah I totally get what you’re saying.
We’re trying to solve the problems that seem lacking in LinkedIn
Better than LinkedIn? -
I gave LinkedIn a second chance after a friend said they found it really useful to keep track when their colleagues/former colleagues moved to new companies — then they had a way to find out if those new companies were hiring. This made sense to me.
Also — I used LinkedIn as the central part of my job hunt last year. it was a great place for me to collect recommendations from people I’d worked with. And it was especially good for being able to showcase volunteer work I’d done, which often more traditional resumés don’t do so well.
http://www.sarahstokely.com/blog/2010/12/my-new-job-connectorcommunicator-at-tacsi/
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Communist.
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I got headhunted via LinkedIn back in 2006 (basically moving from one dysfunctional multinational to another, for a 40% raise) — so it already has a significant RoI for me. Yes, it is basically a massive Rolodex but that’s fine for my needs. I also have a blog or two, Twitter, and I occasionally dabble in Facebook. I prefer LinkedIn to Facebook because the former allows me more control over how I present myself. And I have no desire to play Farmville or read anyone’s Significant Stories. Each to their own.
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Before I go into a meeting with people I don’t know, I will look them up in LinkedIn. It will tell me where they studied, what they studied, how long they’ve been with the current company, and where they worked before.
I agree with another comment here that they lost their way, and want to be a Facebook alternative. I also hate it when I know there’s more information but I’ll have to pay for it.
I also know that recruiting companies use it as one of their primary sources for selecting people (I know, it’s sad).
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@Big: Ah yes, that’ll pull in the international developer traffic. Thanks for the pimpage.
As a complete aside, I’m starting to loathe nested comments, but changing them now would mean a real headfuck going back to fix the old ones so the narrative made sense.
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@Chad said in one line everything I tried to say in 40. This is why I don’t write for a living.
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No problem.
I was also tempted to add an amused comment about you claiming not to be able to “do lunch” in The Bay Area, while your Dopplr widget is announcing you’ll be there (again) in May. (by my count that’s three trips in a year, right?)
You should get Syed to buy you lunch…
big
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Yeah, but Nick said it all in two words.
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With that attitude you are missing alot of good people. Just an FYI.
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I do get LinkedIn, and understand the need for multiple social networks. One for personal contacts such as friends and family, one for work/commercial-related contacts such as colleagues and business partners. The kind of updates that you want to push to both are very different.
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It’s a place for unemployed people to hang out and talk about themselves. The title hawking is farcical and the bragging is ugly.
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LinkedIn does feel very Web 1.0 and I absolutely agree that it’s a pain in the ass to use. I think people only use it because they feel like they have to for professional reasons.
Where’s the hipmunk for business networking? How would it look like? -
Stil: I love linkedin
Before linkedin, i had worked at companies alongside talented, smart, skilled and hard-working colleagues and then ultimately lost touch with them as we all moved on in our careers. I have no idea what these people are up to, no way to contact them, and no way to continue to share information with them.
In a LinkedIn world, each colleague or business associate i meet with i connect with and keep their contact details up to date for all the future.
For me linkedin is like a future proof rolodex of all the great people i have ever worked with, and a way to connect with these peoples skills, knowledge, colleagues and network with social recommendation to ensure it is almost 100% spam-free.
I dont think LinkedIn is an everyday usage application, but as an as-needed service its really useful for me. I have found value in LinkedIn to the point i am also happy to pay as a premium member $50 per month (and the company picks up the tab so its win-win).
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LinkedIn is version 1.0 of a good idea. Its key fault is that it records that I know you, but has no context or ability to measure strength of relationship, as Hashable does. (Disclosure, my fund is invested in Hashable). This strength of relationship aspect is important, and comes from documenting the encounters such as #dinner, or #intro, and can be derived algorithmically once you digitize the interactions. Hashable is thus the useful version of what I had hoped LinkedIn could be but can’t.
LinkedIn simply knows that we met at some point in the past. I have used LinkedIn from the getgo and find it useful for one simple task, being a place where I can get current and updated contact info on people I have met. It is like a live Rolodex and has allowed me to catch up with people I knew many, many years ago and lost contact with. But that is it — simple utility for me, but not a $1bn idea.
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I had similar frustrations when I was using LinkedIn – as John Frankel put it, it’s a “place where I can get current and updated contact info on the people I have met” — it’s not an efficient networking site.
****Shameless plug for my networking service*****
I founded my company (Meeteor) to explicitly address that gap.
We leverage data from Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to introduce you to people you don’t know, but should. Our tag line is, “we take the work out of networking”.
We launch in about 48 hours, so check it out — we’d love your feedback!
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I am still waiting for the benefits of being Linkedin !
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“Well, just because something is the second most-popular doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to work for me.”
I looked at your LinkedIn profile and it appears you use it plenty. Why would you spend so much time on your LinkedIn profile if you don’t get LinkedIn?
Back to the popularity issue. I hear what you’re saying. (I’m not on Facebook.) But If you’re freelancing it helps to have a bigger market. LinkedIn is a huge market of people who want to do business with freelancers, and it’s growing fast.
People go to LinkedIn to search for my expertise, and they show me daily stats of this! I got great offers through Monster.com back in the 90s but LinkedIn is 100000x bigger, that’s one way of looking at it. I recommend you check out some groups on there, but consider joining groups where your ideal clients go, then get to talking about what they want, don’t want, etc. Then figure out how to turn off the “daily digest” email notifications.
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I didn’t “get” LinkedIn until I was working at a job where I was able to observe the hiring process. When we wanted to hire a new developer, the first thing my manager did was hop on LinkedIn and do a few searches. The fact that I wasn’t on LinkedIn at the time weighed heavily on me after that.
What’s the advantage? People do what’s easy. LinkedIn makes it easier for someone to hire YOU.
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As a user of LinkedIn from the very beginning I really appreciate the ability to maintain a professional network there, totally separate from Facebook, Twitter or any other social network. I really enjoy to see updates on former colleagues from a few years ago. As a manager I also always check references of candidates on LinkedIn especially to see what experience and skills they report on their profile (as it is sometimes different from what shows up on their resume).
[Other shameless plug coming up :] But I find it difficult to maintain/assess skills on LI profiles so I created my own offering: MySkillsMap to focus specifically on tracking professional skills and the context where these skills have been used. I actually looked into integration with LinkedIn but they replied that the currently have a closed set of integration partners. That I think is too bad as LinkedIn could really go to the next level should they open up their platform.
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I recently went from employee to freelance, and then I discovered this oddity you mention, that LinkedIn is not made for freelancers. I had to create a “company” and call it “independent professional” in order to slot my freelance work into it. Nor could I link to the companies for which I have been genuinely working as a freelancer, because I am not an employee and therefore do not have a company email.
Strange that LinkedIn should be so out of sync with the reality of the labour market. And I’m not talking “clunky UI” here but a major mismatch between its data model and the structure of the domain in which it operates.
@Matthew Hatton. I agree that LinkedIn serves 90% as the tool of choice for headhunters and their prey. It’s the simplest way to dip your toe into the waters of the job market without actually diving in.
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I read the article from Hacker News.
Holono was made for people who hate LinkedIn so I figured like minded people may find it interesting.
Next time I’ll have a “Shameless Plug” message midway.
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LinkedIn=Business. Facebook=Friends and Family.
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I’ve gotten the majority of my contract jobs from LinkedIn as well as my current full-time job. It’s a great resource — you just have to know how to use it.
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LinkedIn is one of the few things I *do* get. It’s an incredible database of professional career activity. I check it *all* the time when hiring, interviewing, prospecting, working with vendors, see what friends and colleagues are up to, etc.
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Goodness! All these comments overnight. Thank you. I guess that’s what happens when things are posted at Hacker News. Thanks, Big.
I’ve just started my Monday morning, and I have some errands to deal with before I can read everything here. But I will do so later today.
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[Comment deleted. Abusive, fake email address.]
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Just to add to the noise (though hopefully some signal here):
- as Karen Dempster noted, it’s a useful gateway to more sophisticated social networks and social network use. Clients I work with – government, military and bigger businesses feel more comfortable with the notion of a “business only” network. It’s the social network for people who wear grey suits.
- it’s definitely a Rolodex for me. As my use has become more sophisticated, I’ve actually trimmed back my connections there. The signal:noise ratio is good when used this way.
- though many of the groups on LinkedIn are now infernally polluted with pitches and recruiters, there are many that aren’t. If you find them and use them well, they can be gold.
- same goes for Answers. Ask the right questions and Quora and its ilk start to look low value in comparison.
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[Comment deleted. Abusive, fake email address.]
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peter viertel
you are clearly from linkedin. linkedin, you suck and so does your social media manager
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@ladygaaga: I’ve deleted two of your comments, leaving only one standing despite what is clearly a fake email address. Care to explain your evidence for Peter Viertel working for LinkedIn? Quite frankly I expect a better standard of behaviour around here.
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@ladygaaga I looked up Pieter Viertel on Linkedin and it says he works somewhere else. Maybe you should have tried that…
Haha.
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We love seeing folks talking about a “hipmunk for X” — glad our brand already has that kind of impact on people
we love you all for the continued buzz. Seriously, it’s rocking our hipmunk’s world. -
LinkedIn is (sorry to say) useless to me… I’ve had account there for more years than I care to remember, yet I havent done anything there besides accept requests, receive and give recommendations (which so far haven’t resulted in anything meaningful). Professionally, I connect on twitter, I ask and get replies to questions on Quora/Stackoverflow.. I dont get LinkedIn either..
The reason theres so much interest in this article is because after you log in and have attend to those outstanding requests that have piled up, there’s about 10 to 15 seconds where you’re thinking “ok, what now…”
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I signed up for your beta. When can I expect an invite?
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Like most of those commenting I use LinkedIn for staying in touch with colleagues and business contacts. It’s most useful for those who you aren’t close enough to for swapping personal email addresses or adding on other social networks that tend to be more oriented towards friends and family. But in that context it’s lucky to get used more than once a fortnight or so. And then only for a few minutes. It’s just not a very “social” network.
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LinkedIn seems aimless to me, it doesn’t serve a clear purpose or show how “relationships matter”. It seems like a avenue for untalented people to have an opportunity to give co-workers a good recommendation in the hopes they get one in return. I’m sure there are people that genuinely use and benefit from the system, but I’ve seen far too many circle jerk instances of C+ level talent touting each other as the greatest thing ever to happen to the IT industry.
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I’ve been on LinkedIn for a while, all I ever got out of it were requests for jobs in my company. I finally had to put a disclaimer in my profile that I wasn’t able to provide hiring information. Other than that, I’m afraid it’s not done much for me at all.
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I find Linkedin useful in real-world networking situations. Example:
I attended a small-business networking event last week, and while there I got chatting to another attendee. “John” and I exchanged cards and talked for a while before drifting away – you now how those sorts of events go. So I pulled out my Iphone, Googled (his name) + (company name) and saw he was on LinkedIn. I loaded LinkedIn and within seconds I knew John’s role within his company, how long he’d been there, what his previous roles had been, where he went to school, and I saw that while we’d never met before we were only one degree of separation apart – we had a handful of regular business contacts in common – which meant I knew I had some trusted people of whom I could ask “hey does this guy John know what he’s talking about?”. With one click all of his contact details were saved for later, and the next time I bumped into John I had a far more comprehensive mental framework into which I could place him as far as professional credibility was concerned.
So in that sense I think of it more as a “Super Hashable” than as a social network like Facebook.
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Thanks for all your comments, everyone. Much appreciated. I’ve posted my response in a new post. I’ll close comments here, and if you want to continue to conversation you can do so over there.
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On Monday I received a briefing session on LinkedIn, which I’ve just written about in Getting to grips with LinkedIn.
Comments are now closed.
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