Linked In Really Works!

After many, many months of Linked In serving as a status symbol of how many "connections" I had, it has finally become useful to me! Over the last few weeks, I've used it on several occasions in ways that were very helpful.

First off, I used the fairly new Q&A feature that lets you ask a question of your "connections." I was looking for a person who could help me plan a small event and asked for recommendations. I got a lot of really helpful responses and ended up choosing the person I hired through one of those recommendations.

What I found interesting here was that some of these people who I sent my question to on Linked In I probably would not have felt comfortable emailing for some reason. They aren't people I converse with regularly, but are my colleagues in the industry and somehow it seems OK coming from Linked In, a little less intrusive or something.

But the most amazing benefit to me was that a potential client from INDIA(!) found me on Linked In. I am still pretty floored by that. I also have a colleague who got a new client from Linked In recently. It was someone he had worked with previously who found him there and ended up hiring him to do some work with the person's current company. Pretty cool!

I recently read another blog post about how to really maximize the use of Linked In and she makes the point that you really have to actively use its "introduction" feature. Look through your connections' connections and see if there's anyone you'd like to know or who looks like a good prospect and ask your connection to "introduce" you. Much easier than a cold call.

Anyone else out there had a good experience with Linked In? Please share!