Manners for the Twenty-First Century

[rolanni]

OK, somebody explain LinkedIn to me. I have an account. Why I have an account escapes me at the moment, doubtless it had to do with procrastinating while on deadline or something similar. Lots of nice people want me to join their Circles of Influence, Associates Lists, Business Networks and Groups. I've been ignoring them, not through malice, but through a genuine lack of cluefulness. What is this thing for, in theory, and how is it supposed to work?

Comments

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

In theory, it's supposed to help you network to get jobs and assignments, or to promote your business and make possibly-fruitful connections. I used it this morning to try to increase my odds of getting interviewed for a job I'm interested. Turns out that someone I know is connected to the CEO of a small company I'm interested in working for LinkedIn allowed me to use her as a referral. It's also a nice, public place to collect employment recommendations that you can share with others. I suspect that it's used way more for office jobs than for freelance work, but you never know; it might actually be the other way around.

[simianpower.livejournal.com]

Actually my ex is a freelance writer who uses it a lot for finding work. Basically it's like Facebook minus the fluff, built for professional networking.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Aha! This would explain why I didn't Get It. Linking to people I used to work with doesn't actually make much sense to me, since the only thing we ever had in common was work, and in most cases, it was so many years ago, no one will remember me. Or so I tell myself. It's possible that not everyone has as bad a memory for people as I do.

[lagilman]

In theory, it's a purely business-oriented networking site -- business card 2.0. Great for job- or lead-hunting.

I'm on there in my guise of d.y.m.k. productions, and mainly connect with agents, editors, and other folk who hire freeelancers, looking to branch out from the smallish pool of genre. There seem to be some folk there in the guise of Fiction Author, but I'm really not sure LinkedIn is useful for that (if you're writing non-fiction, especially business or self-help, then I could see it being a plus).

I have a friend who is a consultant and uses it to keep lines of communication updated throughout his industry, worldwide. That's probably its purest and most basic use.

Social Networking with a business slant

[romsfuulynn.livejournal.com]

For people who do consulting or freelancing it is a way for peoople to find you and for you to get in touch/back in touch with people you have worked for/with in the past.

For places you were employed, you put in those and the dates and it shows you other people who worked there at the same time. You link to them.

Other types of relationship (friendship, etc more or less require that you know the person's email.

Also you join groups, also give you links which can be professional associations or other - e.g. some of the groups I belong to are

Science Fiction readers, writers, and collectors
UU Group
Electronic Documents and Records Management Professionals
College of William and Mary Alumni Network


For example, my husband uses some specialized software called Primavera - once he has his network established, he can get actual names of people who have that in their profile in the area in which we live as long as they are "in network" (3? degrees of separation)

This article about using it for jobhunting is one example.

But you know a lot of people from SFWA - link to them first, get recommendations. Also link to fellow employees from previous, current positions.

Re: Social Networking with a business slant

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

But you know a lot of people from SFWA - link to them first, get recommendations. Also link to fellow employees from previous, current positions.

Yanno, that requires a lot more chutzpah than I actually have. I figure that people mostly don't want to be bothered by people they used to work with and don't remember me, anyway. But! Now I Get It. At least, now I Get It insofar as I'm capable of Getting It.

[klingonguy.livejournal.com]

I appreciate the folks who are "there in guise of Fiction Author" because part of my reason for being there is in the guise of Publisher.

[lagilman]

are you really soliciting authors via LinkedIn? I'm curious as to how you're going about that -- the resume-and-reference mechanism seems to favor employment history over future or in-progress works...

[klingonguy.livejournal.com]

I'm not actively soliciting authors there (yet), but it seemed like there was more potential there than in, say, FaceBook.

Plus, there are other facets of my life that make sense for me to be on LinkedIn (again, as opposed to FaceBook), such as my past years in academia and my current work in healthcare compliance.

I'm a big fan of synthesis, and LinkedIn gives me a place to try that out, as actively or passively as the mood moves me.

[lagilman]

Oh. I would never think of Facebook as anything other than a social site (even though I seem to be collecting as many reader-friends as old-highschool-buddy friends), and I certainly wouldn't expect a publisher to look there...

And yes, as I said earlier, LinkedIn is a very useful work tool. I just have my doubts about its relative usefulness to the fiction writer.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I get it now. Probably not something I'm going to hang around with/in a lot.

I'd agree

[romsfuulynn.livejournal.com]

The secret is that most peoplereally should only link to people that they remember and would like to stay in touch with.

A few people use it differently - Susan Shwartz (sp?) collects them and does a lot there - and linking to her puts you 2 degrees away from people who might want to find you.

It's just an electronic version of "a friend of a friend of mine might know someone who. . . "

Find the people you would actually think would be pleased to see and hear from you. It will then offer you people and a few of them will cause you to go "oh!"