Business : 4.000+ connections on LinkedIn. My learning.
Business : 4.000+ connections on LinkedIn. My learning.
by Octavio Pitaluga, MBA on 27-Aug-05 12:22pm
Dear all,
I have been an active member in the main business and social online networking platafortms since Jan 2004. I have recently surpassed the barrier of 4.000 contacts on LinkedIn. My network is composed of 40% Brazilians and 60% International people, I guess. I would like to share a bit of my perception and continuous learning based on my experience with LinkedIn for 19 months so far:
1. I have recently disclosed my e-mail address and I felt that I started receiving abt 10 new invitations on daily basis.
2. I added 1.000 new contacts in almost 3 months on Aug 10, 2005 (1 day before, actually). Let´s see how long I will take to add additional 1.000 connections.
3. I was much more passive during this period what made me lost several positions on LinkedIn ranking (from top 8th to 21st worldwide) although I keep a solid leadership in Brazil.
4. I keep collecting e-mails randomly and uploading them on LinkedIn. There are almost 10.000 e-mails on hold. I do not invite new members because it´s a waste of time. I only request a connection when they are active on LinkedIn which means that they are willing to understand what´s going on in this online social network business and may kindly accept my invitation. I recommend people to register all their active e-mails on LinkedIn because it will increase your chances to be found by your mates.
5. I have abt 3.000 pending answers for my previous invitations. Some of these guys are my personal friends but they did not yet understand the power subtly hidden in the network. I´m patiently waiting for them.
6. I feel that head-hunters are dominating LinkedIn. Why ? Because Corporate HR people are passive in this networking world. The downside is that I saw some head-hunters blocking access to HR Managers....
7. Sometimes, people turn down my invitations. Actually, they are not turning me down. Instead, they are turning down a magic, quick and reliable access to a wonderful and rich network that I have been nurturing carefully. In the end, I guess that they are boycotting themselves a bit. I do respect their decision and I am willing to teach them about the benefits of random connections. I can even schedule some online/virtual networking coaching and training sessions. Please contact me at Tech-bridges
8. Some people just care about growing their number of connections. I consider number and quality of endorsements of special importance.
9. LinkedIn complements very well other online networking platforms. Preferable sites per category:
business communities: Ecademy and openBC. Also see value on Soflow and Ryze although I´m very passive there.
social communities: Orkut, Gazzag, Hi5 and experiencing MySpace now. Passive position in all of them.
contact management tool: Plaxo
discussion boards: Yahoo
communication tool: Skype (1:2:1)
Good points abt LinkedIn
Excellent business directory with sizeable audience. If you are not there.....well, well, well... you should.
All sort of business people: corporate, VCs, head-hunters, entrepreneurs etc...
Plain and easy to use. "KISS" like.
Very good number of jobs offer
Brings visibility (I´m better know in Brazil as "The "LinkedIn Guy" than for my networking events)
Nice integration with Outlook which speeds up invitation process.
Things that I dislike and/or it could be improved
It is just a directory (so this said "race" got boring)
Have to ask permission to a 3rd party who can block direct access to someone of personal interest. We are all adults here. We should decide if we want to disclose our contact details or not (visible or hidden) and accept new contacts
Need to request to break a connection
No interaction, no knowledge sharing, no blogging ==> no sense of community whatsoever
Sometimes I feel "used and abused" when somebody that I barely know and accepted to connect as a signal of goodwill comes with 5 requests in row without sending me a previous message explaining his/her situation and asking for my permission in order to do so beforehand.
No automatic and fast re-invitation functionality
After a while, I would like to see the faces of people I´m connected with. So, at least one photo should be allowed.
Hyperlinks posted on your profile are not active
No highlight on Google and search engines given that´s a closed platform
Stop
I will be Rotterdam (Sep 22-28), Brussels (Sep 29-30) and London (Oct 01-07). Please check my agenda, attend my presentations and come to see me personally. Looking forward to identifying win-win opportunities for both of us.
Best regards,
Octavio Pitaluga
CRO - Chief Relationship Officer, International Business Coach and Public Speaker
by Octavio Pitaluga, MBA on 27-Aug-05 12:22pm
Dear all,
I have been an active member in the main business and social online networking platafortms since Jan 2004. I have recently surpassed the barrier of 4.000 contacts on LinkedIn. My network is composed of 40% Brazilians and 60% International people, I guess. I would like to share a bit of my perception and continuous learning based on my experience with LinkedIn for 19 months so far:
1. I have recently disclosed my e-mail address and I felt that I started receiving abt 10 new invitations on daily basis.
2. I added 1.000 new contacts in almost 3 months on Aug 10, 2005 (1 day before, actually). Let´s see how long I will take to add additional 1.000 connections.
3. I was much more passive during this period what made me lost several positions on LinkedIn ranking (from top 8th to 21st worldwide) although I keep a solid leadership in Brazil.
4. I keep collecting e-mails randomly and uploading them on LinkedIn. There are almost 10.000 e-mails on hold. I do not invite new members because it´s a waste of time. I only request a connection when they are active on LinkedIn which means that they are willing to understand what´s going on in this online social network business and may kindly accept my invitation. I recommend people to register all their active e-mails on LinkedIn because it will increase your chances to be found by your mates.
5. I have abt 3.000 pending answers for my previous invitations. Some of these guys are my personal friends but they did not yet understand the power subtly hidden in the network. I´m patiently waiting for them.
6. I feel that head-hunters are dominating LinkedIn. Why ? Because Corporate HR people are passive in this networking world. The downside is that I saw some head-hunters blocking access to HR Managers....
7. Sometimes, people turn down my invitations. Actually, they are not turning me down. Instead, they are turning down a magic, quick and reliable access to a wonderful and rich network that I have been nurturing carefully. In the end, I guess that they are boycotting themselves a bit. I do respect their decision and I am willing to teach them about the benefits of random connections. I can even schedule some online/virtual networking coaching and training sessions. Please contact me at Tech-bridges
8. Some people just care about growing their number of connections. I consider number and quality of endorsements of special importance.
9. LinkedIn complements very well other online networking platforms. Preferable sites per category:
business communities: Ecademy and openBC. Also see value on Soflow and Ryze although I´m very passive there.
social communities: Orkut, Gazzag, Hi5 and experiencing MySpace now. Passive position in all of them.
contact management tool: Plaxo
discussion boards: Yahoo
communication tool: Skype (1:2:1)
Good points abt LinkedIn
Excellent business directory with sizeable audience. If you are not there.....well, well, well... you should.
All sort of business people: corporate, VCs, head-hunters, entrepreneurs etc...
Plain and easy to use. "KISS" like.
Very good number of jobs offer
Brings visibility (I´m better know in Brazil as "The "LinkedIn Guy" than for my networking events)
Nice integration with Outlook which speeds up invitation process.
Things that I dislike and/or it could be improved
It is just a directory (so this said "race" got boring)
Have to ask permission to a 3rd party who can block direct access to someone of personal interest. We are all adults here. We should decide if we want to disclose our contact details or not (visible or hidden) and accept new contacts
Need to request to break a connection
No interaction, no knowledge sharing, no blogging ==> no sense of community whatsoever
Sometimes I feel "used and abused" when somebody that I barely know and accepted to connect as a signal of goodwill comes with 5 requests in row without sending me a previous message explaining his/her situation and asking for my permission in order to do so beforehand.
No automatic and fast re-invitation functionality
After a while, I would like to see the faces of people I´m connected with. So, at least one photo should be allowed.
Hyperlinks posted on your profile are not active
No highlight on Google and search engines given that´s a closed platform
Stop
I will be Rotterdam (Sep 22-28), Brussels (Sep 29-30) and London (Oct 01-07). Please check my agenda, attend my presentations and come to see me personally. Looking forward to identifying win-win opportunities for both of us.
Best regards,
Octavio Pitaluga
CRO - Chief Relationship Officer, International Business Coach and Public Speaker
posted by Tats at 5:18 PM
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