Use It

I've been using Linked In - the social networking site at http://www.linkedin.com for several years now and have been impressed with its constant and steady growth.  I've only ever linked to people I know, I'm not a great fan of trying to add people to your network without having first some kind of professional relationship with them.  After setting up Exogistic this year, I've realised how important social networking has been for me and my businesses.  A big client came as an introduction from someone I worked with in 1997 and I find it a useful way of staying in touch with people.

Value It

I value my online profile and reputation very much.  And because of this I take the time to cultivate these online relationships.  I also prune my tree.  I think it's important to remove relationships that are damaging your use of the tool.  Recently I removed Thomas Power from my Linked In network and from my Facebook friends list.  I had met Thomas in 2001 when he visited my offices after an introduction from a mutual associate.  Since then, I have not met Thomas again or swapped any emails.  I certainly wouldn't regard him as either a close friend or a business associate of mine.  Thomas's network is going to be massive - and the feeds I was getting through on both Linked In and Facebook were just creating a lot of noise that I didn't want.  That was part of my reasoning behind removing him from both of my networks.  Just to note, I don't have anything against Thomas.  It's just not a fruitful relationship for me.

Let it work for you

This post about how Linked In works for different people is a very interesting read:
http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=7229275&gid=41352&trk=EML_anet_qa_ttle-cnhOon0JumNFomgJt7dBpSBA

Personally, I am always searching for new opportunities and new ways of working with people.  Linked In is a useful tool to help me do this.

A lot has been written about social networking sites, and this year Exogistic has built two great video community sites for our clients.  This has helped them with training their staff to launch new products.  If we can help you, please get in touch by calling me personally on 07973 254003.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Visit my linked in Profile here:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamparker

Graham.