At the moment my profile on LinkedIn suggests that my connection link me to approximately 5m\u00a0 professionals.\u00a0 Is this a cause for celebration?\u00a0 I think probably not.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t yet consolidated the number as above 5m \u2013 it varies by several thousand above and below.\u00a0 Does it make any difference to me?<\/p>\n
Well actually not really \u2013 although I do find that LinkedIn is a great source of ideas and (in some groups at least) some very intellectual and useful discussions.\u00a0 It is also a good place for what might be termed \u2018people watching\u2019 as there are a huge range of characters.<\/p>\n
Most of the folk that I interact with on LinkedIn I previously \u2018met\u2019 elsewhere \u2013 either in person or through other \u2018virtual\u2019 environments.\u00a0 There is, however, an increasing number that are \u2018new\u2019 friends simply having \u2018found\u2019 them in one of the many groups that I have subscribed to.<\/p>\n
Would I recommend it?\u00a0 Yes, if you are willing to hear viewpoints that are (sometimes VERY) different to your own.\u00a0 Yes, if you are willing to tolerate some \u2018characters\u2019 who seem just a little off the wall.\u00a0 I also think that you need to take part \u2013 rather than just being a spectator- in order to get the real benefit because then you do get feedback (not always welcome) on your own thoughts and ideas.<\/p>\n
As in all communities there are those who dominate the conversations \u2013 for good or ill \u2013 and you quickly identify who you will \u2018follow\u2019 and who you would prefer to \u2018just go away\u2019!!!\u00a0 All in all though, I think that LinkedIn often demonstrates the real benefit of having a geographically disparate group able to \u2018converse\u2019 about topics that are clearly important to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At the moment my profile on LinkedIn suggests that my connection link me to approximately 5m\u00a0 professionals.\u00a0 Is this a cause for celebration?\u00a0 I think probably not.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t yet consolidated the number as above 5m \u2013 it varies by several thousand above and below.\u00a0 Does it make any difference to me?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[86,115],"class_list":["post-499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ignorance","tag-friends","tag-web"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":501,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions\/501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}