LinkedIn -- the gift that keeps on giving

One of the primary benefits of joining LinkedIn is the access it provides to a wide-spread network of peer professionals.  They are there, 24/7, to help you with knowledge and experience that can make you more effective as an association management professional.  But, you may not realize that LinkedIn offers an added benefit that will help you expand your network without having to lift a finger. This feature is Network Updates.

When you register with LinkedIn and create your profile you are given several options for managing your personal network. One of those is the category of “Receiving Messages,” which can be found under “Account & Settings.” LinkedIn will send you a notification when you receive messages from other users and let you know if any of your network connections have added new contacts to their own networks or if they have joined new online groups. This notification is sent on a weekly basis as a bundled e-mail message.  With this information you can decide if you want to invite any of these new contacts into your own network or to join the new group(s). 

This week, I received a LinkedIn Network Update that showed four of my contacts had added new connections and one had joined a group called KM Edge. This group is designed to enable further collaboration, networking and knowledge sharing for KM Edge site (www.kmedge.org) visitors, users and owners. The site, which is sponsored by APQC (formerly the American Productivity & Quality Center), explores all aspects of knowledge management and the Web 2.0 tools used in the process.  I probably would not have found KM Edge on my own and this new connection has exposed me to information that I feel will be valuable to my professional development in the future.

How about you -– what feature of LinkedIn have you come to appreciate?

Susan Nowicki can be contacted at: susan@orgsrc.com