I was invited about six months ago to join a colleague's LinkedIn network, and I just finally joined a few weeks ago. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with LinkedIn, it is an online professional networking service. Similar to social networking sites like Friendster and MySpace, LinkedIn enables you to build your network of professional contacts, which will include your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to thousands of qualified professionals. After only a few weeks of inviting former classmates, past colleagues, clients and partners and finding some old contacts through the site's search tool, my network (friend of a friend of a friend) is over 28,400.
Once you join, you create a profile much like a watered down resume and can invite your contacts to join your network. Since there's over 4.2 million people on it already, it's also fairly easy to reconnect with people you may have lost touch with. I was able to find a bunch of old classmates from graduate school and invite them to join my network.
Most people are using the site to find mentors, subject experts, and business partners who come recommended, be found for business opportunities, search for jobs, or just get introduced to other professionals through the people they know.
So, take a look. Once you're on, find me, and we can join each other's networks.
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