LinkedIn should introduce IM chat Friday, January 09, 2009

An example of a social network diagram.Image via WikipediaI hardly ever use Facebook, occasionally logging in just in case anyone has left me a message. Yesterday was one such occasion and whilst I was online, I was contacted by an old work colleague who I'd "friended" on Facebook sometime ago via the online chat facility. Off the back of that chance conversation, we agreed to meet up to talk about his new business.

It struck me that LinkedIn should really look at doing something similar. Whilst it's not a "social network" site, in my experience lots of business stems from chance conversations and having the facility to drop a quick IM "hello" to connections who happen to be online would be a valuable feature.

Having already added an address book facility to add more info about a connection, it is perhaps a natural extension to allow real-time interaction on the site. Importantly for LinkedIn, it would perhaps encourage people to spend more time on the site and increase it's value to advertisers.

As an aside, I've also been using a service called SocialMinder lately which I intend to write about separately, but in brief it's a cut-down CRM hooked-up to LinkedIn. This is something LinkedIn should definitely buy or replicate.
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LinkedIn News feed - blessing or curse? Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Image representing LinkedIn as depicted in Cru...Image via CrunchBase, source unknown LinkedIn provide a news feed on people in your network, highlighting new connections they've made, their status updates and reporting on any profile changes. This can be received via RSS, which is how I receive regular updates.

However, for users of LinkedIn, the decision to make information available to your network is an all or nothing setting as shown below

Publish profile updates and recommendations?

When you update your status, LinkedIn can automatically notify your connections.

Notify your connections of status updates? In many cases, I suspect LinkedIn users don't even realise this setting exists. Yet simply because of who they are connecting, people may be revealing more about themselves than they realise. For example, by virtue of connections made, business dealings may be inadvertantly revealed e.g. group of new connections with a particular company. Likewise, anyone looking for a job is likely to speak to recruitment agents and may well connect to them. However, the by-product of this is that anyone in your network will start to see a pattern emerging and conclude you are looking for a new job. This was highlighted to me recently when I saw that one of my connections, who is the Head of IT at Schroders, appeared to be connecting to his whole department and I cynically thought what I great way it was to see if any of his staff were hooking up with agents.

Of course, it's easy to switch this off, but then you [and your network connections] also lose the benefits that this information byproduct highlights e.g. common connections or announcements you make. In my case, I have contacted connections on many occasions having seen they've moved jobs or linked to someone I too know. Likewise, I have been contacted off the back of recent connections I've made.

As such, perhaps a "Disclose/Not Disclose" setting is needed whenever issuing/accepting an invite which can be defaulted to the universal setting and overridden when desired.
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Does LinkedIn data belong to me or my employer? Tuesday, June 17, 2008

JP evidently saw the same article I'd seen in the Daily Telegraph yesterday concerning how the recruitment agency Hays had gone to court to force an ex-employee to hand over details of his LinkedIn contacts. Apparently, the employee had been encouraged to use LinkedIn in his dealings with candidates / employers, but obviously when he left Hays these contacts remained on his LinkedIn profile and he had been able to get in touch with them on behalf of his new employer.

When I read this a number of issues sprang to mind in no particular order
Personally, I think Hays comes out of this looking petty and out of touch. Moreover, it suggests to me that their own internal systems may be weak if they need to also rely on the LinkedIn records of their recruiters - hardly inspires confidence that they will identify you as a suitable candidate for a role down the line.

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LinkedIn - RSS feeds and more Wednesday, April 02, 2008

LinkedIn recently added a number of new features which I'm quite thankful for.

When they recently added a Facebook style "river of news" feature for network updates, it was very information but either you had to log in regularly to inspect updates or they passed you by. The subsequent RSS feed addition has removed the hit/miss nature of seeing updates. For instance, it alerted me to several people having moved jobs that I may otherwise have missed and allowed me to drop a "congrats" note to renew the acquaintance/conversation.

The network updates feature has also slipped in alerts when someone joins LinkedIn who is a contacts you've previously imported but not connected to. Given that I choose to connect only to existing LinkedIn users, rather than trying to invite/recruit new members to the service, these are a convenient prompt.

One feature that was introduced but I'm convinced isn't working or if it is, then it's only on a weekly update cycle is the Profiles View box. The purported statistics on how often your own profile has been viewed or featured in searches rarely changes e.g. mine said 57 views in last 5 days and 432 times in searches for 10 days running. No matter.

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LinkedIn - revitalised Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Despite having used LinkedIn for a number of years and built-up a large number of connections, I confess it was not a site I regularly used other than to periodically synchronise contact details of my connections.

However, my own use of the site recently picked up as I sought to hook up with various companies and individuals in connection with an initiative I'm involved with. I was therefore pleasantly surprised and pleased with the raft of changes that have been introduced.

The "river of news" regarding who's connected with who and what they are doing is helpful, as is the groups feature, which is exposing many more potential connection opportunities than was previously the case. Whilst these mimic Facebook features, I consider them more powerful in LinkedIn than in Facebook. For instance, for me the scenario of Friend A connecting with person B had little context on Facebook and rarely prompted a conversation - whereas on LinkedIn it opens up wider possibilities and conversations e.g. Connection A is dealing with the IT Director of X, perhaps I can assist them with an introduction to the same role in Y or conversely perhaps they can introduce me to Company X. If only there was a "friend wheel" equivalent for LinkedIn!

I suspect that use of sites social network sites like Facebook have had knock-on benefits for LinkedIn in that they have raised awareness of its' usefulness. Additionally, I suspect that many people have quickly realised that they actually want to separate their business and social connections, as well as related revelations, and hence are making use of LinkedIn for professional contacts and Facebook for friends.

LinkedIn still needs to improve in many areas but I'm pleased they have finally begun the transition into being a useful business aid.

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Konnects - a poor LinkedIn clone Wednesday, February 06, 2008

I received an invite this morning to a LinkedIn clone this morning, the main difference being this one is evidently a recent networking site that has yet to build up a sizeable user population.

As ever, there were many options for me to harvest my contacts from a variety of sources like webmail accounts, Outlook and Social Networks, before sending out invites to them to join me on Konnects. Unlike the more established LinkedIn, there were hardly any existing Konnects users amongst my 3,000+ contacts. Of course, I could have sent invites to them but this site had nothing to offer over LinkedIn.

Sure, you could create a blog, but why do that on this site when there are many dedicated sites that exist for that very purpose. Sadly, there was no option to embed an existing blog that I could find.

More irritating was that to be able to view the profile of the person who invited me, I was required to fully set up my profile on the site inc professional details etc. - sorry, couldn't be bothered. I can understand that the site will improve with more complete profiles on there and hence they have to encourage people to fill out their info, but at this point, the site hasn't even engaged with me to demonstrate it can offer me value. I found this a frustrating user experience and too high a barrier when first browsing the site.

But just to demonstrate the insecurity of the site, I couldn't find any way to close my account. Looking in the Help Section showed why

There is no cost to keep your profile on Konnects. There is only a cost if you have exhausted your free messages. We recommend that you keep your profile live on Konnects even if you choose not to subscribe to the service. You never know…someone may see your profile and try to bring a business opportunity your way. You can always subscribe at that point!

To close your Konnects account please contact us. Please include your full name and company name.

In other words, "we are going to make it hard for you to leave, not to mention create work for ourselves in the process!" Dumb.

Konnects lacks any delight factor, and certainly offers no edge over LinkedIn. From what I've seen so far I would recommend to steer clear.

UPDATE : The contact form to close an account doesn't work!

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Notchup - The Spam backlash and LinkedIn hypocracy Sunday, February 03, 2008

I wrote about Notch-Up just over a week ago and commented that

It has been well positioned, since there's no downside to the individual in participating. However, I'm sure the person that sent me the invite may have been motivated by a 10% finders fee on any interviews resulting from people they introduce. Moreover, I suspect this may kick off a wave of spam unless there are some inbuilt restricters in the service to avoid duplicate invites being sent.

Oh well, it seems I was spot on with the forecast. However, the real accelerator to the explosion in user numbers was when Notchup added the ability for members to send invites to their LinkedIn network as described here in BusinessWeek.

Member growth timeline
Unfortunately, some people were getting duplicate invites and when those people are bloggers, the negative backlash is inevitable. This is a tricky design problem for any site. Obviously you want to eliminate invites to existing members but if people haven't signed up how do you deal with them being invited by others.

In a real life example, Andrea may invite Jenny to an event and she declines but when her friend Cathy invites her, she agrees. When handled by an intermediary, how is it to know who Jenny is receptive to, if indeed she is receptive to anyone? Is there a right answer on how to handle this?

Separately, I find LinkedIn's decision to block NotchUp from import contacts smacks of hypocracy, no matter what their T&Cs say. As a LinkedIn user, I am regularly presented with pages of theirs inviting me to import my contacts from Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo and AOL services. LinkedIn has specifically grown on the back of this harvesting facility, yet seeks to deny others the same ability.

LinkedIn point out that users have the ability to download their contacts in a csv file and then do as they will with them. So, they have no objection to the principle of those contacts being my data but wish to make my life as a user more inconvenient by forcing me to go through several steps. Had others not been more generous in allowing the direct "harvesting" of data by LinkedIn, I wouldn't have bothered importing contacts to their service.

Obviously LinkedIn isn't alone in this hypocracy - Facebook is equally bad in making it easy to import contact info but almost impossible to export. It's a shame that equal access isn't mandatory.

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I'll show you my LinkedIn network, so why hide yours? Wednesday, January 23, 2008

I confess to being a reasonably active user of LinkedIn for several reasons

- provided everyone keeps their own contact details up to date, it provides an easy way for me to keep my address book updated when people move roles
- it uncovers relationships I would otherwise have never been aware of between people I know
- it helps me to develop new business relationships via warm introductions

There are many features I wish it had such as highlighting to me via a volume ranking those people who are known to many of my contacts, but whom I am not connected to - implication being it is probably someone I should meet/talk to. Likewise, something akin to the Facebook friendwheel and TrustedOpinion facilities would be most useful in highlighting relationships.

However, the one thing I don't understand though is why people keep their LinkedIn contacts/network secret. Ultimately everyone on LinkedIn has chosen to publicly post their details. It's also a networking site, which usually mean that people are making themselves available to be approached. Moreover, in accepting an invitation from someone it usually means you aren't ashamed to be associated with them and hence it can go on public disclosure.

Whilst there are no prizes or glory in having many contacts, I am intrigued by who people are connected to and it often sparks new conversations. Moreover, people who can facilitate introductions to the mutual benefit of those introduced will always be valued.

So what is the rationale behind hiding your network?

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LinkedIn - Watching you, watching me Friday, December 07, 2007

Just spotted a new LinkedIn feature that reports on who has been viewing your LinkedIn profile and how many recent views it has had. If you are a non-paying member it gives you a "taster" by telling you about a few of the recent viewers and inviting you to upgrade to see them all.

It alerted me to a few people that viewed my profile, which has prompted me to get in touch with them out of curiosity.

Great way of starting a conversation - "who you looking at!"

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Social networks revealed Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Interesting piece on Read/Write web today on demographics of social networks

Some highlights, followed by full details below from Rapleaf:

Facebook Users
- 2.6 million users identifed in Rapleaf
- 63% female, 36% male
- 17% <18>45 yrs
- 2.9 major social networking sites used on average
- 62% are on Myspace, 5% are on LinkedIn, 9% are on Friendster, 10% are on Plaxo, 22% are on Hi5

Myspace Users
- 11.3 million users identifed in Rapleaf
- 63% female, 36% male
- 20% <18>45 yrs
- 2.4 major social networking sites used on average
- 15% are on Facebook, 2% are on LinkedIn, 9% are on Friendster, 6% are on Plaxo, 17% are on Hi5

LinkedIn Users
- 0.8 million users identifed in Rapleaf
- 38% female, 61% male
- 2% <18>45 yrs
- 3.2 major social networking sites used on average
- 16% are on Facebook, 25% are on Myspace, 12% are on Friendster, 16% are on Plaxo, 8% are on Hi5

Friendster Users
- 2.3 million users identifed in Rapleaf
- 58% female, 41% male
- 12% <18>45 yrs
- 3.0 major social networking sites used on average
- 10% are on Facebook, 44% are on Myspace, 5% are on LinkedIn, 5% are on Plaxo, 26% are on Hi5

Plaxo Users
- 1.3 million users identifed in Rapleaf
- 62% female, 37% male
- 16% <18>45 yrs
- 3.6 major social networking sites used on average
- 20% are on Facebook, 53% are on Myspace, 11% are on LinkedIn, 9% are on Friendster, 15% are on Hi5

Hi5 Users
- 4.5 million users identifed in Rapleaf
- 60% female, 39% male
- 21% <18>45 yrs
- 2.8 major social networking sites used on average
- 13% are on Facebook, 43% are on Myspace, 2% are on LinkedIn, 13% are on Friendster, 2% are on Plaxo


Whilst this based on a sample using people they managed to identify, they are pretty sizeable sample sizes. I do wonder to what extent those people are active on multiple social networks rather than having simply left a footprint behind on sites they no longer use. The male/female ratios are also intriguing between the various communities - is it a surprise that LinkedIn is male dominated?

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Get your friends round on Friend Wheel Monday, July 02, 2007

I long wanted to uncover a mechanism for seeing which of my friends/contacts is connected to which others on LinkedIn, but the site just makes it to hard - you have to go through each one individually and there is no way I'm even going to try doing it manually.

So it was with some delight that I came across Friend Wheel, which maps the connections that you have on Facebook and their links to each other. Mine is below.

As you can see, my Facebook contacts clearly split into so notable clusters (or none at all).

What a fabulous tool for a bunch of reasons
- when planning a party, you can easily see who already knows who.
- you can see relationships you perhaps never knew existed
- you might introduce friends to each other who you think would hit it off

C'mon LinkedIn, kindly keep up.

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OpenID and Portable Social Networks Sunday, January 21, 2007

Brian Oberkirch has an excellent analysis on Open ID and how it has the potential to create portable social networks, which would aggregate our identity, activity and friends from the many "islands" on which we are registered into a consolidated entity. The post contains some interesting ideas on how LinkedIn might benefit from this area.

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