Review: LinkedIn

Site: LinkedIn

Members: 10 million+

Features:

-you can import your contacts via webmail or other contact programs such as Outlook and Act
-ability to send messages, post job openings, review resumes
-ability to ask a question where other users are able to reply, here is a sample question that was posted on my network the other day:

What are your recommendations for starting a college recruiting program?

I’m going to be involved in setting up a college recruiting program and would like your help. I am seeking tips, war stories and recommended reading-both online and offline. Anyone you would recommend as a person to talk to about this would also be appreciated.

I am going to primarily be recruiting software engineers, marketing and sales professionals, and a handful of people for other roles. I am looking for college students from top computer science and engineering schools, though I am sure that I will find great people at others as well.

I am not looking to recruit anyone through posting this ;)

Thanks in advance for your help!

-another great feature is an introduction feature where you ask one of your contacts to introduce you to one of theirs, which is allows you to network and meet other professionals.

Review:

I don’t want to dig too deep into LinkedIn, I believe that fellow b5media.com blogger Scott Allen does an excellent job of it on his blog linkedintelligence.com. I would like to take a couple of seconds to talk about my first impressions of the site.

LinkedIn is a different animal when compared to the other sites that I examine here. At first I was pretty sour on LinkedIn because it was different, I didn’t see the potential it truly had because I was trying to compare it to the other social networking sites that I have been using and writing about.

While LinkedIn can’t be used in the same way that MySpace, Tagworld, Bebo, and other social networking sites can be used, it still is a valuable tool to network within the business community. It is a great way to find people that may be able to help you with your business, to find different people with expertise areas different from your own, or to even find old school mates that might be valuable tools to regain contact with.

With 10 million users and growing LinkedIn is viewed as the professionals social network, and I have taken the time out to get on it and expand my profile. The site has stringent anti-spam policies and is designed to make sure you build your network through people that you know and through recommendations of friends, which is a feature that I like as it reigns in the possibility of abuse.

LinkedIn is a solid site that is worth spending a couple of minutes on setting up a profile and checking to see what friends, classmates, or business associates are on there.

To view my LinkedIn profile, click here.

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