Ian Landsman is Starting From Scratch, July 7, 2006:
Social Networks… What a Waste of Time
If you're in the market for a powerful and user friendly Help Desk solution, please take a look at my company's flagship product HelpSpot.Scoble is done with social network apps and so am I. I get tons of people sending these things to me. I just don't have the time to deal with it. The problem is that once you agree to a few then you feel bad if you don't agree to others. Then I'm "linked in" with all these people who I really don't know and probably wouldn't vouch for other than that they read this blog. Not really great contact criteria.
Of course the biggest problem is that being a part of these networks has created exactly 0 HelpSpot sales. When being there shows up on the bottom line I'll be there, but until then I'm just going to say no from now on.
Discussion
Completely understood there. I lost hope for a while but then I put "I DO NOT RESPOND TO RANDOM INVITES." at the top of my profile. I get about 1/10 of the random invites that I used to. Now if I don't know the person - as in have exchanged some emails with them, met them, etc - I don't accept and I certainly don't invite them.
For many people LinkedIn, etc got to be a "how many links can I get" instead of actually useful services. I've found prominent people on there whom I could probably send invites to due to emails, etc... instead I just held off and about 1/4 of the time they add me instead.
Created by Keith Casey on 07.07.2006 11:07 pm
Oh, and I actually have gotten some serious contacts through LinkedIn and have refered a number of people for opportunities which have worked out.
Created by Keith Casey on 07.07.2006 11:07 pm
But that kind of brings up the idea that if you already know these people you don't really need linked in. I understand that by being linked in other random people they know can now contact you. Eh, I don't know. You're into that consulting thing so I see some benefit there, but even so have you gotten actual gigs from it or was it mostly people finding normal jobs and getting references via it? That seems to be mostly what they do now.
Created by Ian on 07.07.2006 11:07 pm
Well, I use it more as a profile-manager than anything else. Sure, in my CRM, I keep a few notes on people that I've met and want to keep in contact with but their LinkedIn profile goes to a level of depth that you can't get to even after a handful of drinks and friendly talk.
Yes, we're still in custom consulting, but it's steadily dropping down to half of our business as everything else has been ramping up... but there have been quite a few times were having a friend in common has set up an introduction and led to great discussion and business... consulting and otherwise.
Besides, when I come across an opportunity that we can't/shouldn't handle, knowing who to pass it to comes in handy... and they have yet to be upset with me. 
Created by Keith Casey on 07.07.2006 11:07 pm
I'm with Casey. LinkedIn makes for a great profile manager and is a nice central repository for contact information when I'm on the road.
However, I also share everyone's sentiments about the random connection reuests. I recently got one from someone who works for the company that owns the company I used to work for, but I was no longer working there when the merger happened. I'm sorry, but that's too dubious a connection for me to add this guy as a connection and vouch for him.
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Created by Christopher Hawkins on 07.07.2006 11:07 pm