I Don't "Get" It (LinkedIn, That Is)

My buddy @mitcharno over at Tuvel Communications recently shared a link to a post about social networking gender differences. The folks at LinkedIn say, “The overall result in the US is that men are overall more savvy networkers than women, but the real insights start to surface when you start slicing and dicing by industry and company.”

I’m an avid link-clicker so Mitch’s pointer led me to another post that said (my paraphrase), “Hey, wait a minute. Maybe it’s just LinkedIn that women don’t like.”

In my case that’s true. Though I’m a self-proclaimed geezer who loves gizmos, it’s taken me longer than I’d like to “get” some of these new-fangled tools. I’m an early adopter of downloading/signing up and then a later understander (made-up word) of what it means to my world and how I really want to use the tool. I’ve been an email user since 1992, read blogs of all types for years, and have had Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for almost three years. Four out of five of those tools occupy a major portion of my waking hours so evidently I’ve “got” it where they are concerned. LinkedIn is currently the outlier, much like the stats that the LinkedIn folks discovered.

The often-used tools break into two broad categories:

·          Email and Facebook are my outlets to connect with people I know well. Some are folks I talk to regularly; others are friends/colleagues from long ago. The not-happening-at-the-same-time (asynchronous is the geeky word for that) communication means I can check in without “bothering” folks. I email or post or read when I want and folks respond (or not) when they choose. With email, I can get a quick response or go back for a review when my memory fails (what WAS I supposed to do about this task?). My Facebook friends are personal connections—high school, college, church friends; former colleagues of mine and Don’s; and family—people I actually have some type of relationship (present or past) with. They’re also people I trust so when I ask a question I’m fairly certain that a high percentage of the responses will be credible.

·          Twitter (or at least the tweeps I follow) points me toward articles and issues I might not know about otherwise and keeps me up to date on topics I’m interested in. It satisfies part of my curious nature. I don’t know all of the people I follow in a direct way (yeah, like Steve Case would recognize my name), but I’m not invading their space by following them. Blogs are the same way. The entries from the diverse list in my RSS feed make me laugh, provide moments of inspiration, or force me to look at an issue an entirely different way.

But I just don’t vibe with LinkedIn although I guess I need to try harder since I certainly want to be viewed as “savvy.” I’ve read articles about improving your profile and adding connections. I know people who are LION-TopLinked with a gazillion contacts and I admire that they have that many connections, REALLY!

I’ve tried to think more specifically about why LinkedIn doesn’t work for me at least right now and it boils down to two things:

·          It kinda reminds me of those clubs from back in the day (not that I EVER crossed the threshold of one of those places….I just “heard” about them! J). The ones where there was lots of small talk and a bit of posturing (male AND female) and the number of first names and phone numbers (real or made-up) acquired was the benchmark for a successful evening. The few times I’ve posted questions on LinkedIn, the signal-to-noise ratio was pretty low and the activity that resulted was mainly, “I can sell you xyz consulting services.” It could be I was asking the wrong questions.

·          The other thing about LinkedIn that bothers me is the whole recommendation thing. I’m all for shout-outs when people do a good job and I try to give them when I can but it feels false when I see five recommendations come within minutes of each other about different eras of a person’s career or a quid pro quo set (Jane wrote one for Sally so Sally immediately returns the favor) shows up on my LinkedIn update. Just thinking about asking somebody to post a recommendation on my profile makes me break out in a cold sweat (probably why I’m not any good at sales, too).

I haven’t given up on LinkedIn in the hopes that I’ll “get” it eventually and I’ll keep watching respected colleagues who use it for their benefit. In the meantime, I’ll see you on Facebook and Twitter!

Your turn to share…which of the social networking tools delight you?  Which are baffling?