LinkedIn is absolutely the best social network for making business connections. To clear up a lot of misconceptions, we recently asked Vincent Wright, founder of MyLinkedInPowerForum (now called MyLinkingPowerForum) a few questions to see how a true power networker uses LinkedIn:
1. How do you use LinkedIn?
VW: Carefully! :-) More seriously: I’ve used Linkedin both for
extending my professional network and making introductions for my
friends. I’ve also used it for a bit of research and branding, as
well.
2. Do you go for quantity or quality in your connections?
VW: It cannot be just quantity OR quality, Mike. It MUST be both:
Quantity AND Quality. If it’s not both, you don’t need Linkedin.
For me, the QvQ concept strangles the very joy out of networking. QvQ
just isn’t sufficient. Asking the QvQ question is not much better
than asking if you prefer having just your Left Arm or your Right Arm?
You want BOTH arms, right? Personally, I think QvQ needs to be
re-argued towards Specificity/Generality (or something along the lines
of my C.I.A. Concept (Confluence -> Influence -> Affluence)
3. Do you ask or answer questions?
VW: I tend to ask more questions than I answer. I expect that may
change a bit once I have more time…
4. Is LinkedIn gaining or losing relevance for you?
VW: Though Linkedin has gained incredibly in power and membership size
since I was first fell in love with it about 5 years ago, it’s not
quite as relevant to me as it was 2-3 years ago. There’s an
extraordinary range of competing sites where you can meet business
professionals – Some of these sites are quite interesting, useful, and
beneficial in their own rights. (FriendFeed, Twitter, Ning,
CollectiveX, Xing, Google Friend Connect, My Blog Log, Yahoo Groups,
Facebook, etc. I think the more astute online networkers are now
using these these sites in conjunction WITH Linkedin.)
About the Interviewee:
Vincent Wright is an entreprenueral recruiter and leading LinkedIn Evangelist and a fixture in the LinkedIn community. Vincent’s MyLinkingPowerForum and MyVirtualPowerForum Yahoo Group are ground zero for many highly influential LinkedIn members.
Connect With Vincent
Twitter.com/VincentWright
Linkedin.com/in/VincentWright
AMEn to answer #4.
The lack of community management of Linkedin is decreasing the quality of the service incredibly. I am finding myself more comfortable with Xing and twitter lately.
Great interview
Julius