I’ve been a member of LinkedIn for quite some time, Feb 22nd 2007 in fact. What is LinkedIn? It’s basically a business/ job / work related social network.
Like a lot of social networks, it seen huge growth early on but gradually leveled off… now that the global recession has kicked in though, i predict it’s gonna see huge growth and now is the time to connect with people – when they’re in need of connections and actively searching for them. I think this Alexa traffic graph confirms that theory. Notice the sharp rise in the last month.
Rather than mass ignore everyone, businesses and indeed employees do not want to sever ties with anyone and will generally welcome as many contacts as possible in times of hardship…
Think about it… if you have a job now, the likelihood is it’s not secure or certainly not secure as it would have been 12 months ago. So that fear factor or threat has forced people in to connecting with more people in a bid to keep as many options as possible open should they lose their job. They say it’s not what you know but who you know and LinkedIn gives you the chance to grow or showcase your ‘who’ list.
It has to be said though, this isn’t a facebook or a bebo – generally you don’t add people you don’t know and if they add you having had no dealings or links with you whatsoever, reject them – your contacts list says a lot about you and you don’t want random strangers in there.
I’ve said it before, but if i were hiring someone, i’d be checking their profiles and anaylzing them under cover. Generally, the more contacts someone has, the more valuable they are for a business (in black and white terms). Having profiles with just a few friends can actually do damage to your image and i’m pretty sure lots of people don’t think about that when setting up these profiles…