I've been using
LinkedIn for a few months now. I wrote a review of it a few months ago (see the
hot companies section of my website) and was quite impressed by its capabilities.
After using it for a while I've noticed a few things:
- My list of contacts has started to grow organically. People use LinkedIn to compare their Outlook address books with who is already in the system, and when they find me they ask me to link up with them. This is a smart strategy for viral growth on the part of the LinkedIn guys.
- People ten to polarize into three categories:
1.) They enter their own information and never link up with anyone else but me (i.e. it's interesting, Brian invited me to join his network, and I'll do the minimum to check it out.)
2. They invite select acquaintances, and usually end up with about 8-10 people they are linked to (i.e. I'll give it a dry run)
3.) They invite everyone in their network and end up with 50 - 300 people they are linked with.
If the Outlook strategy pays off all of the people with only one or two links will end up being found by everyone who has their email address in Outlook, and the value of LinkedIn will really grow. It should be interesting to watch this pheonomenon unfold.
By the way, if you know me fairly well, go to
LinkedIn and join my network.
