InterNetworking

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Im getting ready to enjoy some olympic hockey, hoping USA can pull an upset over Canada.
Now onto this weeks topic. I was introduced to Linkedin last year in my Orginizational Behavior class. We were asked to make a Linkedin account and since than my Linkedin contacts have grown numerously. Also, I have become very familiar with it and begun to learn many of its benefits.
My main interaction with Linkedin comes in the form of an e-mail about once a week from a classmate or colleague requesting as an invitation to connect on linkedin.
While my interaction with Linkedin is limited I do find it has many positive assets. One of the main reasons I use Linkedin is when I am pursuing a job. Therefore, if I make a contact through an internship or another form I can formalize that relationship by following up with a Linkedin invitation. Thus, it keeps me in that persons mind and hopefully will have future benefits.

Linkedin is also a great way to do research. Before interviews, I will take the name of the interviewee and look him up on linkedin. This way I get some background knowledge about the interviewee and can many times view his or her work experience. Having this knowledge can be very beneficial in a job interview as it gives the person being interviewed some knowledge about potential talking points or things they could relate to their interviewer with.

Many of the benefits which I detailed about Linkedin are expanded upon by Guy Kawasaki in his blog post about Ten Ways to Use Linkedin. Therefore, while Linkedin may look like just another social networking site to outside observers once involved many of its benefits are uncovered.
Hope everyone has a good week,
JC