Over the past 15 years there have been a number of technology-based innovations that have profoundly effected how we perform our jobs. We have seen personal computers transformed into laptops and the cell phone and Palm Pilot evolve into all purpose devices such as the Blackberry. We have witnessed the internet explosion and with it the ability to search for almost anything and buy almost anything at any time. In addition e-mail communication and text messaging have had a dramatic effect on how we keep in touch with one another. It is incredible to think that all of these changes have taken place within such a relatively short time frame.

More recently, we are witnessing another trend that is apparently on the verge of becoming as much a part of our everyday business lives as Outlook, Google and eBay, namely social networking via the internet. For business professionals, including logistics and transportation professionals, the social network of choice, at this time, appears to be LinkedIn. Is there anyone out there that has not been invited to become part of a colleague’s LinkedIn network?

What is the big deal about LinkedIn? Let’s start by looking at what LinkedIn is all about and what you can do with it. To join LinkedIn, you simply sign up, at no initial cost. There are costs down the road if you wish to build your network rapidly (e.g. invite more than 5 people at a time and use some of its more advanced features).

You create a profile telling the world who you, where you work and have worked in the past, where you went to school and so on. You then choose how you wish to utilize its capabilities. Are you seeking a new job, a consulting contract or do you have other objectives? You can pick as many as you like from a list provided.

By telling the world that you went to school at Michigan State University from 1980 to 1984 and worked for Roadway Express from 1995 – 1997, LinkedIn uses this information to search for and identify former classmates and business associates that are already in the “network” (with whom you may wish to reconnect).

From there you are in a position to invite colleagues and friends to join your network and to receive invitations from other folks to join their networks. This is the first major step in using LinkedIn, creating your network of associates.

At this point you may be saying, well so what? In fact some of the folks with whom I spoke in preparing this blog said to me, “LinkedIn is a waste of time.” In fact, there are a fair number of folks who feel this way. For the casual user of LinkedIn, this is a very understandable reaction.

To appreciate the benefits of LinkedIn, this is where one needs to understand its’ value proposition. This appears to be a classic case of the more you put in, the more you get out of it. If you are looking at using LinkedIn solely to scan the networks of your colleagues and then “pick off” the people that might be potential business prospects, you are probably going to be disappointed. You can phone these folks or spam them but you will probably be “blown out of the water.”

That is not to say that you cannot use LinkedIn for business development purposes. Rather, the etiquette of LinkedIn appears to be comparable to what one would experience by joining a local club or association. LinkedIn is structured to allow you to do this in a more civilized manner. First, to enhance your stature and establish your expertise, you can obtain recommendations from customers and colleagues. Anyone looking at your profile can see these recommendations. Second, you can trigger the LinkedIn “invitation” service to obtain a referral. So yes, you can do some business development work on LinkedIn if you do it professionally and discretely.

If you have a question to which you would like an answer, you can send it out to some or all of your network or anyone else you designate (that is registered on the network). If you are looking for a job, you will see the job postings for the folks that are in your network or are in one of your colleagues’ networks. This is a nifty feature if you have a large network and are actively seeking a career change. In fact this is networking in the truest sense of the term.
In addition, you can identify professionals in a range of service areas (e.g. accountant, lawyer, recruiter etc.). At the same time, you can recommend professionals that you like and respect.

The search feature allows you to enter a name of a colleague with whom you worked in the past but have lost contact. Once you enter a name, everyone with that name pops up. If this person worked for Roadway Express, but did not enter this information in his profile, the name will not appear when you enter Roadway Express in your profile. However, if they are registered on LinkedIn, their name will appear when you do a search.

In essence, LinkedIn helps you build and focus on your personal network and provides a tool to communicate with them. It lets you build and monitor the growth in the network of your colleagues. It facilitates the identification of prospects and resources in your network’s networks. At the same time, these folks can see what you are up to. This information appears on a daily basis.

While some of this may or may not be of benefit to you, one of the less understood features of LinkedIn is the message you send to people whom you wish to invite into your LinkedIn network. By inviting someone into your network, you are telling them that they are important to you and that you are there to help them.

There are other business networking tools out there. For example, Deposco is a (www.deposco.com) is a social networking site exclusively for supply chain professionals. Facebook (www.facebook.com) caters to a very different market. New developments (e.g. creating a supply chain network within LinkedIn) are under way. LinkedIn is gaining traction on an ongoing basis. This is obvious from the growth in the number of people in so many of my network’s contacts.

Clearly LinkedIn is a “work in progress.” I am still a neophyte at using it and I am learning more every day. To find out more about LinkedIn go to www.linkedin.com. It is probably time for you to learn how to use this tool to build your network and your business. This may prove to be another in the series of internet related changes that will have a profound effect on business professionals for many years to come. Since I, along with many readers of this blog are trying to learn more about internet-based social networking, please respond to this blog and share your experiences with LinkedIn or other services of this nature.