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.