A friend Shani Lee asked me directly today “How do you use LinkedIn? What do you see as the benefits?”

So here are 10 of them:

1. LinkedIn is considered a “business” network, that is to say, formal and corporate to some extent, the platform has kudos in that world, it is considered a “serious” medium for networking.
2. LinkedIn allows me to obtain recommendations for my work, which is then laid out professionally on my profile.
3. LinkedIn allows me to “clean-up” a mailing list (see below)
4. LinkedIn is low maintenance, I need very little time to devote to it.
5. LinkedIn allows me to export my contacts for use in other applications.
6. LinkedIn opens me up to a very large network (only work related), some of whom are seeking my services, or my recommendation of another person.
7. LinkedIn has no “social clutter” or annoying applications.
8. LinkedIn enables me to seek opinion in a business context quickly.
9. LinkedIn can be the first line in “breaking the ice” on a new contact
10. LinkedIn is a CV in a URL

One of my favourite aspects is number 3, where I can “clean-up” a mailing list. I’ve worked online in various capacities for about 10 years and one of the things I have always done (you should too) is to build up your mailing lists. I have built a mailing list for almost every project I have been involved with, this is essential as that’s the method for pulling them back to your content time and time again. I probably have around 100,000 email addresses in one form or another I’ve collected over the years.

LinkedIn then, allows me to import a list of contents and will find out if any of those email addresses are LinkedIn users. This is brilliant as I can friend a contact (stating how we contacted each other initially) and I can then export a clean fresh list for other purposes.

How do you use LinkedIn yourself, what have I missed here?

Technorati Tags: business contacts cv export inport linkedin mail mailing list network profile social clutter mailing list linkedin mail contacts export inport business network cv profile social clutter

One of my goals this week is to update my LinkedIn profile to include as much information as possible.

Until now I have used LinkedIn as a fairly “broad stroked brush”, with some very wide summaries, but it seems to me that if I now dig deeper and outline some of my projects more specifically I’ll obtain far more recommendations.

So this is the update I’m adding for the work I carried out with the Crazy Gang at Crayon Marketing, ahh I do love the way those guys work.

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Online Media industry)
January 2007 – July 2007 ( 7 months)

• Worked as part of their Virtual Thirst team to develop a brand presence for The Coca Cola Company in the 3D virtual world of SecondLife.

• Conceptualised and developed a prototype "experience" of the Coca Cola brand in SecondLife.

• Created machinima video footage to aid viral marketing

• Interviewed on podcasts for viral marketing the campaign

• Sat on the advisory panel to judge a winning entry for the campaign

Virtualthirst

Below I’m including the machinima clip I produced as part of this project for those of you who do not use Secondlife, you know it might even tempt you to get your toes a wee bit wet!.

Click To Play

My LinkedIn

Technorati Tags: coca cola crayon cv employment linkedin marketing profile secondlife thirst virtual virtualthirst marketing branding audana coca-cola linkedin crayon cv profile employment virtualthirst virtual thirst marketing secondl