It used to be simple.
You did your “play” networking on Facebook, and you built your “work” networking lists on LinkedIn. Facebook was everything LinkedIn was not…chatty and time-killing. On LinkedIn, you didn’t learn what your connections (not friends, mind you) did at a party last night or compare your taste in movies. If you wanted to find a new job or research someone’s employment history, you went to LinkedIn. If you wanted to tell the world you were goofing off at work, you went to Facebook.
Sure, there were ways of using Facebook professionally. But using LinkedIn to build friendships out of work relationships or to have a sense of your connections’ lives beyond their resume? Not so much. Until now.
There were rumors for a while that LinkedIn was moving in a more Facebook-like direction, and now we’re starting to see the results of those efforts.
Have you visited LinkedIn lately? Now instead of a dry listing of who has added connections, the network update on the home page includes questions your connections have asked (and answered), status updates and more. There is less emphasis on connecting with strangers through introductions, and more emphasis on building richer relationships with the connections you already do have.
I still question the wisdom of LinkedIn focusing on an iPhone interface before providing a rich Blackberry experience. m.linkedin.com is not much to text home about yet. And I highly doubt I will ever use the status updates, nor have I seen many of my contacts use it either. However, I have to admit that I spent time on the LinkedIn site over the weekend and found it a worthwhile experience. Merely the fact that I spent time on the site is a change. Before, LinkedIn was merely a repository of information that you consulted when you needed.
This weekend, I learned on my LinkedIn homepage that a consulting friend got that fulltime job I knew he was hoping for and I shot him a note of congratulations through the email link in his profile. I found the “People You Might Know” section to be an episode of “This is your Professional Life, Judi!” as it truly was a lengthy list of people I knew (not everyone I knew well enough to invite, however). I learned a lot skimming the questions and answers in the Charity and Nonprofit category (my day job industry). I even joined a group, although I’m not sure what that gives me beyond a list of other people who joined the same group.
As long as LinkedIn never offers anything with the word “poke” or “wall,” maybe they’re on to something after all.
What do you think? Is LinkedIn more relevant to you now?
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