LinkedIn - the new business card?

Marcy Phelps, Kim Dority and I had a great conversation the other week about, among other things, how to use LinkedIn. Kim pointed out that one of its most useful applications is as a way to surface the various aspects of your life... or at least the aspects you want to make public. Seeing who people are linked to can be an indication of what they're interested in. What I particularly like is that it's a way of listing my prior professional experience without it feeling like a resume. And, of course, I can find interesting connections to people I might enjoy knowing. FWIW, my profile is at www.linkedin.com/in/maryellenbates

Comments

[Richard Dupont]

I'm finding that LinkedIn is useful as a marketing tool. You can't blantantly advertise without getting kicked off, but the contacts one can make can turn out to be valuable. They just started the Answers feature. I am amazed at the questions that people are asking, both business and technology related questions. If I can, I try to answer them as a way of showing them what kind of work I can do as an info pro. I'm still working on it - no clients from it yet.