Im happy with my LinkedIN networking results... and no SPAM for me since Ive joined.

Hey Gaucho100K O/T but what do you have to do with wine? I am with the Opimian Wine Society http://www.opim.ca . Very unique wines in Canada.

Cheers!

Daria

Linked In
 

I have used LinkedIn for several years to track down former colleagues and now that I am "retired" but still working International (Asian) business consulting jobs under contract, I am finding quite a few prospects for work. I do not use it to it's fullest extent but still it is quite a good tool.
bb

I signed up originally at the request of a friend that wanted me to give him a recommendation, it's not as pathetic as it sounds :D I didn't have any issues with spam requests until last week when I heard from about six or so people that I don't know at all. I denied their requests.

In other words, you received unwanted invitations to join people's networks. (I don't like the use of the term "spam" in this context because it is ambiguous; people use it to mean very different things.)

I think I know how some of the unwanted invitations come about. I've been guilty of accidentally sending out a few of these myself. :eek: When you join LinkedIn, you can have it search your e-mail address book for people who are already registered on LinkedIn (actually you can do this any time, not just when joining, but it is one of the things that is offered when joining).

Most people's e-mail address books contain hundreds if not thousands of contacts, and the list of "matches" (e-mail contacts who are already LinkedIn members) can be quite long. Therefore, before sending out a bulk invitation to all the matches, you have to go through the list and cull out the ones whom you don't really know -- i.e., people you've corresponded with once or twice by e-mail but don't know personally, etc. If you're too sloppy about this culling process, you'll end up sending some unwanted invitations.

There are of course other ways you could send or receive unwanted invitations. For example, you might be in someone's 2nd or 3rd-order list of connections and they decide they want to connect to you directly.

When this happens I do exactly as you do and denied the connection. If it appears to be someone just trying to boost their connection count I also report them via the same mechanism that you deny the connection. I have noticed a few "recruiters" that are trying to connect to anyone and everyone. It's bound to happen but it has only happened to me once or twice.

Been on LinkedIn for years. Hardly ever look at it, because I just don't really professionally network all that much any more.

generally no spams from linked in for me... but I think I got one
a couple of days back from a fellow FTer :p j/k

Wirelessly posted (Palm TX: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D050; Blazer/4.3) 16;320x448)

To few FTers on LinkedIn me thinks.,,

i am on linked-in with other PeopleSoft professionals. My specialty is kind of a niche (CRM), but its cool to stay in touch with former coworkers.

I haven't had any "spam" either, just a couple requests from recruiters, which are welcome. I've been on the site for years and love it. I use it to get back in touch with former co-workers, to network for my side consulting business, and primarily to find other people to network with who are also in the pharmaceutical/biotech/medical supplies fields.

I find a slow but steady trickle of my friends and former colleagues joining LinkedIn...the site must be growing.

I still like Doostang better, but I use LinkedIn also.

Interesting article recently:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/14/tech...ion=2007121411

I am resurrecting this thread because now that I run another Group on LinkedIn I have noticed that there are "chronic Group joiners" who join just about every group on LinkedIn, regardless of whether they meet the criteria or not. I wonder just how many of those in the FT LinkedIn Group are actually FTers!!!:rolleyes:

I'm gunna say atleast 1 since I am in that group on LinkedIn and, well, I hope this post qualifies me to be in that group. :p