Okay – I am one of “those” LinkedIn users. I admit it. I keep my connections private. And this really irks some people. I mean REALLY irks some people. I have had fingers (literally and figuratively) wagged at me. Apparently there are people that believe hiding your contacts is breaking a sacred bond between with the LinkedIn brethren.
I was an early adopter of LinkedIn. When I started using it in 2004 I decided to keep my contacts private for several reasons:
- LinkedIn was a new concept to me and I didn’t know what to expect. So I thought I would stick to the doctrine of “first do no harm”.
- My industry – a recruitment firm’s stock and trade is confidentiality. Candidates or clients conducting private searches do not want to show up on a recruiters contact list.
- Relationships and contacts are the life blood of our business. Therefore, giving away contacts for a recruiter is similar to posting the formula for Coke within the beverage business.
Now, as LinkedIn has matured, I still hold to this logic. There are many recruiters that don’t agree. But I am sticking to my guns for the moment even if it may mean that some of my link requests are denied.
FYI – I just set my husband up on LinkedIn last night (he’s a musician). And his contact list will be public. So let the record show that I am not a complete LinkedIn heretic.
And on another LinkedIn front. . . LinkedIn has been a hot topic in the B2B marketing arenas for some time. This month it reached new levels of buzz as they launched new applications for users. Additionally, the Chicago Business Marketing Association had a large LinkedIn- fest which included Patrick Crane, Chief Marketing Officer of LinkedIn as the Luncheon speaker. They also offered one-on-one profile makeovers and a session to learn how to best utilize LinkedIn for B2B marketing. The event drew over 400 B2B marketers. Paladin was a sponsor of the luncheon and helped with the one-on-one sessions.
More info:
November 18th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I have to admit that I am one of those LinkedIn people that was irked by folks who did keep their connections private, but you can still take advantage of their connections in a more general way through the “Search for References” link, which allows them to vet any references.
Re new functionality on LinkedIn, the JobInsider applet is awesome. It pulls up connections from LinkedIn when you browse job sites.
November 18th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Hi,
Thanks for the Linkedin article. I liked it. And I believe in terms of public vs. private connections it really depends on the individual and the kind of work that they do. There’s good arguments on each side of the fence. My contacts are private. And for now that’s just a matter of choice. That can change as time goes on.
By the way congratulations on your new blog. I don’t know if Paladin is going to do this but I receive a weekly listing of openings from other creative placement agencies. What I’ve been doing with that list is posting those openings on my blog. I have a fast growing readership and my blog is geographically specific–Los Angeles. So I post a weekly listing of local job openings. If you decide to send out a weekly list of Paladin openings please let me know. I’d love to post them on my blog as well.
Best,
Derrick Mathis
http://www.unclefatlips.com
November 18th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Jadey,
Great start. Keep it real.
Michael
November 20th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Jadey
Nice blog. And since I’m also one of the folks who asked about contacts I can tell you that your logic makes perfect sense to me now. Honestly, I was thinking about me when I asked, but must admit I was also caught up in that energy from the BMA luncheon you mentioned.
Wish I had been able to stay for the LinkedIn training. I still don’t think I’m using it as best I can.
Since I think you’re more tied in to LI that I, what is the etiquette? If you ask someone to join your network and they don’t respond, should you ask again or let it go?
After the luncheon too, I go directly to LinkedIn when someone gives me a business card. Amazing the results I’ve seen.
Rob
November 21st, 2008 at 8:11 am
Hi. I like this blog so far. Sort of off the subject but not.. I have ‘@paladinstaff.com’ set on my ’safe sender’ list, but you have a co-sender ‘@ccsend.com’ -so the blog invite got blocked. Fortunately I happened to have my auto-delete off this week just to see once again what was being filtered out, and spotted your invite. I get all my other Paladin emails okay, so I thought I’d set ‘ccsend.com’ up on the safe list; went to their site to confirm that they’re okay. But it just comes up as a blank page that says ‘forbidden’.
I can change my email info on my Paladin profile so things go to one of my less-restrictive email addresses. But all my other important business comes to my special email address and so splitting Paladin out of that group and into a more cluttered general group would be the result. I don’t know if future Paladin emails will come ‘from’ third-party email addresses; Like click-through routing c/o Undertones perhaps. Congrats on the blog. Keep going.
November 21st, 2008 at 10:25 am
Ted - To respond to your question, the “@ccsend.com” is a third party e-mail marketing tool that we use called Constant Contact. It allows us to send more targeted HTML emails to our Candidates and Clients. Please add it to your “safe list” so that we may continue to deliver targeted information about Paladin to you!
November 21st, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Thanks Rob - Yes, you were one of the folks that inspired the post. For the record - you were not one of the “finger waggers” referenced. And as a follow up I spoke with a senior level member of LinkedIn and he sided with me too. So I feel vindicated!
Thanks so much for your comments. We will talk further at the next IABC Chicago event.
All the best -
Jadey
December 4th, 2008 at 3:48 am
I recently stirred up this question on LinkedIn Answers and invite those of you who are members to check out the thread!
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/hiring-human-resources/staffing-recruiting/HRH_SFF/345351-4994141?browseIdx=1&sik=1228376750573&goback=%2Eamq
Cheers- Chris