Using Linked-In

I've been using Linked-In quite a bit, and I've had some success with it. In my experience, there are really two ways to use Linked-In.

The first way, and the way that I think the designers intended, is to use it for keeping track of important and trusted connections. In this model, your first level connections are limited only to those trusted and verified contacts with whom you do business with frequency, have a personal relationship with, or for whatever other reason is someone that you know very well and trust.

The idea is that you can use Linked-In to map out your trusted contacts, and see who their trusted contacts are. You can then use the network to make safe assumptions about the credibility and trustworthiness of others based on their connections to your friends. Everybody, by being connected to one another, provides an implicit professional voucher. In this model, most of the power of your network is front loaded on your first and second level contacts: Your friends, and friends of friends.

The second way to use Linked-In is to become an open networker, accepting and making connections with virtually anybody. Under this model, you seldom know very much about your connections at all. The goal is simply to grow your network as large as possible, as rapidly as possible, by taking advantage of the exponential growth that having many connections gives you (ala Wayne's World, "And they tell two friends...and they tell two friends..."). In this scenario, the power of your network is in the third tier. By linking yourself to as many tertiary contacts as possible, you broaden your visible portion of the overall database and can conduct much more powerful searches.

Both approaches have merit, depending on what you're trying to do.

If your goal is to daisy-chain your way in to opportunities, using strong personal connections to bolster your credibility, then the first approach is the best for you. If your goal is simply to maximize your own visibility, and to use Linked-In as a database within which you can make targeted searches, then the second method is probably your best bet.