Lunch2.0 @ LinkedIn

The Lunch2.0 Silicon Valley networking series continued yesterday and a big shout out to the generous folks at LinkedIn for the use of their office (nice new digs!) and the fun activities.  In addition to the barbecue, I had a chance to share potato salad with an old friend (Hilary Taubman-Dye), re-connect with LinkedIn CEO, Dan Nye, and make a few new friends.  Mario Sundar has a great Lunch2.0 post with photos on the official LinkedIn blog. 

Before driving over to the new Mountain View offices I did a little homework, reviewing the product features, reading the blog and updating my own LinkedIn profile a bit.  I must admit, I updated my profile even more after leaving the offices. Here are a few features I found really fun to explore.

1. LinkedIn Answers:  I'm not keen on how other sites have opened up their products to the the "what do you all think of this topic" phenomenon.  If not done right, questions can be irrelevant to the audience and answers can be all over the place.  LinkedIn did it right.
2. InMail: The quick email message is sent along with my profile and other data so the receiver has a broader context around the message I am sending.

Chris Pirillo captured a few really solid pieces of feedback when he posted in the new LinkedIn "Answers" section asking for the Top Reasons to Use LinkedIn.  Others including Guy Kawasaki contributed their thoughts.  Here are mine:

1. Ability to stay in touch when friends move on to new opportunities
2. Automatic notification in my network when my contacts update their profiles or add new connections.  I've been able to send out more than a few "congrats on the new job" emails without receiving an "I moved" email first.
3. Clean and high-quality way to network with people in both new areas of interest and old areas of common ground, whether that be by skill set, company, school or other dimension.

Comments

[robz]

LinkedIn is a valuable tool - one that I could not live without, though my personal network is not that large yet. Thanks for the interesting post.