LinkedIn

Does anyone else make use of LinkedIn?

I'm beginning to find it fairly useful. Something that I really enjoy is the lack of hard-sell. Of course there is a bit of it, but for the most part members follow a polite etiquette whereby you build a professional, online relationship with those who may be interested in your services at some point in time, or who may have services of interest to you. When the opportune moment arises you mention your abilities or business that they may find useful.  Members mainly share ideas, discuss and learn from other like-minded professionals.

With the average earning of members at $100,000 you're looking at some very influential contacts. LinkedIn was originally a way to connect company chiefs, and as others realised how positive this network could be they jumped on the bandwagon.

A couple of months ago I really started to become an active member, the result of which was an invitation to be one of the first on the Linked:HR moderating team. Somewhat bewildered I accepted and really got into it. The topics are interesting, and with our aim to eliminate commercial postings there is a lot of material to get involved in.

Recently I took on the Europe, Middle East and Africa subgroup; it doesn't have the 230,000 members of the main board, but I have a mission on to make it succcessful community.

Alongside moderating (and running my own business!) I've been instrumental in the upcoming Linked:HR charity campaign, initially to inspire donations to the Red Cross when the headlines move away from Haiti, but aid is still desperately needed, then to maintain a steady flow for Red Cross work worldwide.

Trumpeting aside, LinkedIn offers phenomenal opportunities for people like me who really don't like the hard-sell, who prefer talking to people and, IF an opportunity to work together arises so be it.