LinkedIn and stuff

[OwlHoot]

Does anyone know if linkedin invitation reminders are automatic or are they manually sent out.

And also if you ignore their invite does the person get confirmation of that?

I wondered that too. Seems churlish to turn down a manual invite from someone you know/knew. But saying yes to an automated suggestion might simply send a manual invite to the person which one might not have initially intended.

Also, although I hardly use Facebook I do have a profile there, and last time I logged in there were dozens of "you may know this person" mugshots. There was a button to say "yes", but no way to say "no" that I could see. So I'm stuck with a load of clutter, which makes me even less inclined to use it again.

[minestrone]

Does anyone know if linkedin invitation reminders are automatic or are they manually sent out.

And also if you ignore their invite does the person get confirmation of that?

[realityhack]

I got my current role and a few interviews and offers through LI, so it seems to be useful.
Had a few agents spam me but oddly, more queries directly from the clients than anything else.
There is a lot of chatter but you can dial it down - most of the spam is from groups I've joined, and not-got-around-to unticking the 'email me' option.
Definitely keep your connections non-viewable in your privacy settings.
You need to be a lot more selective in who you connect to - only about 10% of my contacts are people I've not met in person or worked with - the only reason I connect to that 10% is the same reason I follow similar people on twitter - for industry developments/news.
It's a good resource IMO.

[gingerjedi]

It's useful for looking people up though.

Like the people that will be interviewing you...

"I see you collect old mustard tins"

"Me too!"

[Clippy]

I don't really use it but its on my 'to do list'.

I need to update my profile but, until then, I have made it non-discoverable (?).


Couple of points though:

1) I have locked down my profile so that my contacts cannot see who I am connected to as one of them sent a connection request to one of my contacts and I then got an embarrassing call asking who the hell this bloke was.

2) Do not treat it like Facebook - only connect with people you know.

Thereafter, you need to decide how you filter any connection requests.
i.e. will you only accept connection requests from people you have directly worked with or from people you have worked with in-directly - I'd be interested to hear what others do.

3) You need to actively manage your profile and it needs to be a component of your sales strategy so if you blog or tweet about your work speciality, then include that within your LinkedIn/Twitter profile and vice versa.

[Fred Bloggs]

I reckon it's a waste of time. It could have been good but I think it has lost its original purpose, by and large.

[norrahe]

Found it useful for making contacts in new markets and for them to get in touch with me. Have had a few useless pimps contacting me about things of no interest but few and far between.

[minestrone]

Had an offer and a face to face interview through linkedin

I get quite a lot of requests from agents I have never heard of, I just ignore them and for a while I had 'no agent speculative requests' in my summary. It seems to be junior staff working with agents who have no clue how to build up relationships with contractors just panning out network requests all day.

[cojak]

Yep, I ignore agents and those people I don't know.

[Troll]

I know there've been a few threads about LinkedIn but I can't be arsed trawling through searches and I'm just curious anyway.

I created a profile years ago and forgot about it but more recently I've been getting requests to join someone's network. Cool, except I've only met two people out of the current nineteen I'm connected with, no idea who the others are but accepted anyway. Kinda like Facebook in a way, seems nobody refuses a friend request.

So I'm curious, has anybody had any real benefit from membership / contacts? Is it more like Facebook without the chatter? Do you apply any criteria before accepting a request?

PS No agencies or companies or any other species if spam, seems to be just individuals.

I have got my last two contracts through old colleagues so it does seem worthwhile

The agencies have cottoned on to Linkedin, but I block my contact list from being viewed by others and will not accept link ins from agencies

[MarillionFan]

I don't use it heavily, but I do have a full profile.

I do find it useful for keeping a list of places and people I've worked with. I've had a piece of work through someone who tracked me down from their new client site.

In addition I have been contacted directly by agents(had a few calls but nothing from it). It's useful for looking people up though.

[Cliphead]

I know there've been a few threads about LinkedIn but I can't be arsed trawling through searches and I'm just curious anyway.

I created a profile years ago and forgot about it but more recently I've been getting requests to join someone's network. Cool, except I've only met two people out of the current nineteen I'm connected with, no idea who the others are but accepted anyway. Kinda like Facebook in a way, seems nobody refuses a friend request.

So I'm curious, has anybody had any real benefit from membership / contacts? Is it more like Facebook without the chatter? Do you apply any criteria before accepting a request?

PS No agencies or companies or any other species if spam, seems to be just individuals.