ShareThisDanielle Ezell calls it "three degrees of separation.”? That's how deep she is connected to all her contacts in a fast-growing business networking Web site called LinkedIn.com.
Don't be fooled. Those three degrees of separation — Ezell's contacts, the contacts of her contacts and all of their contacts — total more than 37,000 people.
This massive networking site — Business 2.0 magazine called it "MySpace for grown-ups”? — now number more than 11 million people and is growing at a rate of 180,000 new members per week.
It costs nothing for a basic membership, which connects users to business contacts, former colleagues, classmates and their contacts in a sort of no-nonsense presentation. Users create their own profile and tell as little or as much about themselves as they want others to know, all without photographs to spice up the site.
The challenge becomes taking that information and finding ways to use it to enhance your business or career. Ezell, president of the Oklahoma City-based marketing and public relations firm 20 Hats, said she has 44 connections in her linkedin.com contact list, but struggled to recall when she used it last.
"It reconnected me to a former co-worker who I talked to about doing some contract work for us,”? Ezell said at last. "So, I guess I have had some benefit from it.”?
If Ezell wants suggestions on how to use the site, linkedin.com spokeswoman Kay Luo — 302 connections — has plenty of suggestions. It's not a Web site where users hang out looking for socializing opportunities, Luo said.
"What LinkedIn is really is a network where you are able to build relationships with the people you know, your business and professional relationships, and then see your extended networks of contacts and associates,”? Luo said. "That's what makes it a really powerful tool.”?
Business and professional users have seized the massive networking opportunities, devising myriad ways to contact prospects and reconnect with former colleagues or classmates, she said.
"The way that people use it is, one, to keep in contact with their existing network, to keep the pulse live in their existing networks,”? Luo said. "It basically allows you to keep tabs on those people, because a lot of time you will move from company to company and you will lose track of former co-workers."
LinkedIn.com was created in 2003 by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Reid Hoffman. It grew slowly at first, but the number of users has blossomed more recently.
"LinkedIn took a while to build traction, but the nice thing is that once professionals adopt a tool you have them,”? Luo said. "We have them for their careers now. Whereas, with some of the social networks, kids are a lot more fickle and they will try every social network out there.”?
Although Luo would not confirm it, LinkedIn.com could soon become more visual by adding photographs to the individual user profiles, sources said.
The site also offers a broad menu of uses, like posting questions that other users can answer.
Of course, the site can offer uses beyond pure business-building, career-advancing networking opportunities, Ezell said. It's sort of a who's who of the business world. Or who-knows-who, perhaps.
"It is kind of interesting from a social networking standpoint to see who all is out there and how we're all connected,”? Ezell said.
About LinkedIn.com:
- LinkedIn is an online network of more than 11 million professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries.
- Where: The Mountain View, Calif.-based company is located at www.linkedin.com on the Web.
- Uses: LinkedIn.com members use the free site to connect with former or current colleagues and classmates, to prospect for new clients, to find seasoned professionals for their businesses and pose and answer questions on a variety of topics. Users can be found for business opportunism, job hunt, post and distribute jobs listings and get introduced to other professionals through their own connections. LinkedIn.com also has paid services that allow contract job hunters to post job notices and contact prospects.
Source: www.LinkedIn.com
