11/18/2020
Is your network giving you what you need?
What I get most of the time is requests for connections, followed immediately by unwanted solicitations, which lead to nothing. If I go to LinkedIn it’s to look up someone I met recently. Once in a while, typically once a year, I’ll look through my 1600 or so connections to see who I should catch up with again.
All of this takes work. I’m either bothered by someone I don’t have an interest in, or I have to spend time browsing. Do I ever have time to spend browsing? Of course not. I get that this works for LinkedIn, the presumed “owner” of my network. It just doesn't for me.
I don’t need another social network. I want a professional network that works for me. I want a silent network genie at my side that offers suggestions about people I’m connected to just when I can use them. So when I identify a new prospect, my personal network genie reminds me that I already know several people at that company. Or that I can get a warm intro to the person, or that I connected with her several years ago… and forgot that I had. That would be cool – and useful.
