Social Networking

Many people within my personal network have recently received an inviation to join my "LinkedIn" virtual/digital network. The reaction-which is pretty much the one I have as well-has been quite unanimous.

"I'll do it, but I'm not sure what the value is."

Frankly, I'm not sure what the immediate value is either, but here's my take on it.

LinkedIn (and there are others that attempt to do the same, both in the business world (like Spoke) and personal world (like Friendster)) provides you an opportunity to demonstrate a unique value proposition that you bring to the world-namely your network (and extended network) of contacts.

As I've written before, I spend a lot of time thinking about what aspect of my job can/should be outsourced to India. One area that can't be outsourced is my relationship to other people and the feelings that they have for me.

When you are at the center of a network, your perceived value to the network increases. People need YOU to make connections to others. Now, as my friend pointed out, he could go directly to someone and say "Jeremy sent me," but we all know it's much more valuable if I write to you and say "hey, you REALLY need to talk with this guy." (assuming of course you value my opinion in the first place :-)]

Now, the problem with LinkedIn and the others is that it's not quite clear to most people HOW exactly you benefit from it and what is the best way to utilize it. That's the short term problem.

In the long term, however, I do beleive that being able to demonstrate the power and viability of your network is something that is going to be critical.