Are You LinkedIn? If Not, You should be if you want people to know you.

Just a reminder that LinkedIn is one of the “new” social networks for marketing and credibility. I have found that people seem to be in one of three camps. The first camp is “I don’t want my information on the internet!” And the second camp is “I’ve got my toe in the water – but what am I getting for this effort!” And finally the third camp – “Wow! Look at all the contacts I can make!”

Okay, I know some people that feel that joining the LinkedIn world will expose them to Internet thieves, and more email spam. Well, best I can tell is no one is spamming me for being on LinkedIn. It appears that email addresses are blocked unless you have joined someones network. Then you can contact others – like old clients that disappeared but are happy that you found them through someones network. Again, if you don’t know someone or don’t like them – you can decline their joining your network. Cool!

The second group is the most interesting group. They know that it might be important to be on a network site – but don’t know how to use it. Therefore, they just get their toe in the water, fill out the bare minimum and wait to see what happens. Later they say that they joined but they aren’t getting any results from their effort. My take on this attitude is “no effort – no gain.” Oh, did I mention that I was a member of this group for about a year? Well, no wonder very little happened!

Now for the third group – the home of the networking champions – which is a group that I’m working to get into a quick as I can. It is amazing how easy it is to ask people to help you. I have gained some invaluable quotes (recommendations) that are outstanding. The great thing is the people recommending me actually wrote the quotes! No help on my part (like the sales 101 guru’s tell you to write testimonials for the customer) – no, these are real live testimonials and I love them!

There are so many things to do with the LinkedIn service. If you have a blog you can post your latest RSS feeds on your profile. You can create links to your websites (which the search engines love to see high volume sites having links to your sites!). You can place slideshow presentations on the profile to explain what you do or your areas of excellence. Another cool thing is the ability to find old classmates and business alumni. Networkers do rule the cyberspace.

Finally, in business relationships prospects can verify who you are, get some background on you, find your websites to do more research – and suddenly – you have gained credibility with a prospect because they feel that they now know you! WOW! It doesn’t get much better than this.

Well, if you want to learn more about who I am go to my personal profile and check me out! Based upon my recommendations – I would want to do business with me! Happy Holidays and Surfing the Net.