Checking out LinkedIn

LinkedIn, the business oriented social networking site is up to 7 million users and is even making money. My question is what's it doing for me?

Like a lot of people on the site I signed up based on someone's invitation. From there I did nothing. Actually, less than nothing - I'm pretty sure I managed inadvertently to create multiple identities by responding incorrectly to invitations and I know there's people I invited who said yes but don't show up on my contacts list. Not sure how I lost them. I'm just afraid if I go looking hard enough I'll find another me with another list. That would make me a LinkedIn bozo - not a category I've seen on the site.

So what's LinkedIn's value? Most people I know are like me. They just know they belong. LinkedIn's greatest value seems to be in recruiting. Recruiters and managers doing recruiting seem to have the best stories about the value of LinkedIn - which suggests that there are some happy recruitees out there too.

LinkedIn is also a decent way to stay touch. Try updating your profile. When you do, a communication goes to your contact list letting them know about the update. Don't lie. They will know. And you will get emails from long lost contacts getting back in touch to tell you that it was a crappy job anyways and you're better off unemployed and on the street. They're lying.

LinkedIn and social networking in general is evolving. There are more tools and services that have and will be introduced to enhance the site's functionality. In the meantime, check this out - http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimcrocker- it's one of my identities. If you check out Google here you'll see there's likely another?