But I have finally come to Linked In - getting on for a month after its fellow "Week 8" Thing, Facebook. I have had an account on Linked In for well over four years - much longer than my Facebook account, and, in fact, so long that I can't remember when I joined. But I've come to blog about it, rather than skipping to a less familiar Thing (or even Extra Thing) because I have finally got round to updating my profile with such relative basics as a photo and a link to my Twitter account. Perhaps this post should have been named "Procrastination".
When the 2010 version of 23 Things reached social networking sites, Aidan mentioned my observation that, of the three communities I consider myself at least a part-time member of, biotech professionals choose Linked In but science communicators and educationalists congregate on Twitter. I still have little idea why. To my eye, Linked In seems more slick and professional than Twitter (let alone Facebook), less inconsequential, but also, perhaps, a teeny bit duller. It is strictly a site for professional business, with most of the updates appearing on a Linked In timeline being new connections and job changes. And I have used it for a small number of pieces of real professional business. At one end of the scale, a comment on a Linked In group led me to be invited to give a careers talk - not big money or even little money, only expenses and canapes, but something I find rather fun. At the other, I spotted a contract as the in-house science writer for an immunology company, and was almost appointed only to part amicably after realising that the required commitment of a day a week in Oxford was just too much for me
If anyone were to ask my advice on how to get to grips with Linked In - and looking at my profile this is still rather unlikely - I would recommend a guy called Will Kintish. He is a small, unassuming ex-accountant, and one of the best networkers and trainers I have ever come across. His workshops can be fairly expensive (it is possible to find subsidised ones, and I was fortunate enough to attend one such earlier this year) but the combination of entertainment with useful, and memorable, networking tips may be well worth a substantial investment. And he is an evangelist for the value of social networking ("not just for kids") and for Linked In in particular. Check out his Linked In website - it's well worth a visit. I would suggest that you start with the four-minute video.
But I imagine that librarianship has more in common with communication and education than with biotech, but I may be wrong. If this hunch is correct, and my hunch about the three communities is correct (and these combine into a pretty big IF) then I would guess Twitter to be many librarians' network of choice. Is this true for you?
