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

[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.