I received one of those invitations today, another request to Link In. Although I really like the whole idea of
LinkedIn, the online social network for the professional community, I am always curious when I receive an invitation from a would-be acquaintance or an aspiring politician.
Actually, the person who sent today’s invitation is an aspiring politician, I suspect, and already has my vote. Even though I didn’t realise that this person quite knew my name (we only met once or twice in passing), I had heard through the ubiquitous grapevine that he had left the country, or at least I received an evite for farewell drinks, but I wasn’t able to attend.
Anyway, I accepted the invitation and now we’re officially Linked In. But I do wonder what this community, whose ‘population’ is larger than that of Sweden’s, truly offers. Is it a useful networking tool, or does simply speak to the six degrees of Kevin Bacon? Though I’m frankly still undecided, I can’t contest that it’s reputation as a professional networking site is well intact and it’s number of registered users is climbing steadily.
For those of you familiar with LinkedIn, you may know that at the bottom of each email invitation to connect, LinkedIn adds a fun fact. Today’s was:
Fact: Adding 5 connections makes you 3.7x more likely to receive a job offer.
Since its launch in 2003, LinkedIn has added new features and functionality, and indeed there is an expanded area dedicated to
hiring. The area includes customised views for hiring managers, recruiters and corporate accounts and tools specifically designed to help find the right candidate, or at least compile a short list. With a number of sites (Hireability, Jobster, the Ladders, Monster) offering this type of CV searching and sifting to one extent or another, the next generation of tools might include one to compare and cross reference our short lists!
In the meantime, LinkedIn has already firmly pushed the boundaries of social networking well into the online recruiting sphere and this blend of formal and informal ways of connecting through established (sometimes loosely, sometimes firmly) relationships is definitely characteristic of our
Web 2.0 world.