I first stumbled on to LinkedIn two years ago when asked to find a creative way to fill a difficult opening.
It didn’t work, but it was moderately addicting to use so I continued to update my profile and add connections.
Linkedin is an important part of my strategy to maintain a neatly manicured internet identity. It’s the only real front page result from a google of “Chad A. Hanson”
I have had some positive experience with this site.
I have connected to some old classmates, but frankly I talk to them just as little now as I did before LinkedIn.
I recently found a speaker for our company retreat by spamming my LinkedIn contacts.
Useful, but not more so than my outlook contacts.
Before the SIOP conference I created a semi-official SIOP group. Which holds some promising networking potential. But due to the poorly designed functionality of LinkedIn groups all I really get is five emails a week and an excuse to check my profile.
Linkedin does have some real value for maintaining and building a network and promoting your “googleability.” However, be careful not to over connect. As a general rule you should have at least spoke on the phone with your connections.
I plan on purging some of my connections those I never met or no longer remember.
No offense.