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Is LinkedIn a Colossal Waste of Time?
Joshua M. Brown
August 8, 2010

I’m sorry, I just don’t get it.  I’m sure it’s me and I’m just not making the most of LinkedIn, but before I spend any time and energy on a social networking site, I’ve gotta get something back from it, anything!

The whole LinkedIn thing seems like a colossal waste of time.  Aside from some creepy people from my past, no one of value has reached out to me in over three years of having a profile.  It’s here btw:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuamorganbrown

Here’s what LinkedIn offers as their latest stats:

  • LinkedIn has over 75 million members in over 200 countries.
  • A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second, and about half of our members are outside the U.S.
  • Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.

I don’t know.  I’m thinking of getting rid of it entirely…where am I wrong?  Thoughts?

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Joshua M Brown is a New York City-based financial advisor and stockbroker.  He is also the author of The Reformed Broker blog and his work has been featured by virtually every major financial publication.  None of the opinions ...

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  • http://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuamorganbrown Your LinkedIn Fairy Godmother

    If you are in financial services, you’re making a big mistake by not using it to source new potential clients / customers.

    Meeting with someone new? You want to look them up on LinkedIn to quickly see who you know in common, and what parts of your background (schools/companies) you have in common.

    Looking to find inroads into a company? Type the company name in the search box to get a sorted list of people at the company, with people you know in common to get to them.

    Looking to get business intelligence on a company? Follow that company from their LinkedIn company page to get daily updates.

    The key is to connect to the people you’ve worked with who you know and trust. Don’t fill your network with garbage.

    Hope this helps.

  • Hardowls

    LinkedIn is a total pain. In order to stop the annoying clutter that they disseminate – one has to join!
    The “failure godmother” who attempts to provide some justification for the site – fails miserably.
    I can seen no reason for their existence, and they have no justification for bombarding my inbox with their self justification and aggrandisement.

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