Does LinkedIn Spell "Disloyalty?"

My friend Lindsey Pollack put out a blog recently entitled,“Why you should use LinkedIn (if you aren’t already.”)  It built upon a NYT article titled, “At social site, only the businesslike need apply.”

According to the NYT:  “The average age of a LinkedIn user is 41, the point in life where people are less likely to build their digital identities around dates, parties and photos of revelry. LinkedIn gives professionals, even the most hopeless wallflower, a painless way to follow the advice of every career counselor: build a network. Users maintain online résumés, establish links with colleagues and business acquaintances and then expand their networks to the contacts of their contacts."

A couple weeks ago the Savvy Gal herself, Diane K. Danielson, (co-author with Lindsay Pollack of the Savvy Gal’s Guide to On-line Networking) came in to speak with the women of EMC on the subject of networking. She covered several of the tools available to build your network, and the logic for doing so from a professional and career-building standpoint.

After her presentation, we had a Q&A session and talked about culturalnorms inside a company for the happily employed with tools like LinkedIn.

PHOTO: Diane K. Danielson, CEO of the Downtown Women's Club, writer and author.

Question:  If you put yourself out on such a site, it could be a signal that you were somehow disloyal or in the market looking for a job?

Answer:  My view is that it is more than“okay” to be on LinkedIn and other networks like EMC’s internal "EMC ONE" where you can connect and further value for yourself and your company.  It no longer means you are disloyal or in the market looking for a job. I've found it can mean the opposite. (If you’re a professional who is not on LinkedIn by now -- or a company who blocks its use inside the firewall, --  I  start to question if you 'get it'.)

I’m still discovering what it can do for me and my company every day. (I suspect I am a major 'under-user' of the tool.)  Following are a few of the cool things I have experienced or discovered with it:

1. I  met an EMC customer the other night at Fenway. We chatted briefly. The next day, he sent me an invitation to connect on LinkedIn. That was very cool. Anything that ties me or my company more to a customer and enables us to have a closer affinity in any way, shape, or form is a good thing in my book.
2. I researched customers I was scheduled to meet with to see who we might have in common. Regardless of what State they were from, I saw we had at least one person in common. It was tremendous to have such an immediate ice-breaker.
3. My company and I are easier to find. Let’s say we met briefly at a business event. You remembered my name but not my company or some combo of the two. If you Googled “EMC Polly” or “Polly Pearson,” my LinkedIn profile would pop up at the top of the search page.  (I still have work to do --. if you Google “Polly,” I’m trumped by Polly Pockets and the movie “Along Came Polly!”)
4. It is easier to stay connected and build relationships with your professional contacts. Let’s say you got a patent, wrote a book, launched a product, had a baby, or got promoted – what a great and easy way to keep your professional contacts up to date!
5. An EMC new hire and I decided to have lunch recently. Prior to the lunch, I received an interesting email from her. She told me she saw, via LinkedIn, that we were both at Boston College and at Assumption College during the same years.  So while we never actually met until recently, I found it fascinating to discover – 19 years hence -- that we were in the same place, on the same day, and in the samegraduation ceremony. With this established, you can imagine how much more we ultimately had in common … which, it should go without saying, will serve our business relationship well. (I suspect internal use of LinkedIn-like tools could be a business norm in the years ahead.)

The issue, as I see it, is keeping your profile up-to-date. It still feels a bit awkward in a selfish / self-promotional way, and we all have lots of other "real" work on our plates.

You can find me, and my somewhat neglected profile, on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/3/333/928.

--------------------Talk Back: ------------------------------------

Do you think LinkedIn remains scary? Are you keeping your profile up to date? If so, what motivates you -- and what is your system -- for doing so?