Todd Defren has an interesting post about using his About Me link to direct people to his LinkedIn profile. Like Todd I run a PR firm and I think his idea has merit, although it works better for him than me.
I’m not sure I agree with his statement that “It gives folks a sense for how ‘well-connected’ you are, i.e., how much time you invest in the important work of relationship-building.” The problem is that it doesn’t. Some of my best contacts aren’t using LinkedIn and are very unlikely to anytime soon. So LinkedIn gives you an indication of how ‘well-connected’ you are to what is still a very limited spectrum of people.
I’ve also used OpenBC but haven’t had time yet to see what it can do (or indeed connect with many people). That’s something I plan to rectify as I have been following Stowe Boyd’s More Europe Project.
For the record this is my LinkedIn profile and my OpenBC profile – both of which need work.
Good point, Stuart. I think that if one were to embark on a LinkedIn campaign or make it a focus it might be useful – but really it's a crude numbers game. I like LinkedIn but not all of my connections in it are strong ones, and certainly doesn't represent all my contacts.