Reinke Faces Life

>I have to give LinkedIn credit for a really excellent solution to this

Well, I would NOT call it excellent. And, I recognize that it LinkedIn’s “ball” and they can take it home any time they want.

However, if I was them, I’d have went at this a little more sensitively. I’ve been on LinkedIn for a long time. If I wasn’t in the first wave, I was in an early one. When they were trying to get recognition, it was “upload your address book and get connections”. Now, like a reformed prostitute, they want to move “upscale”. No more “connection sluts” wanted. (Sorry if this is too graphic.) They are saying “we used you to get our buzz; now buzz off”. I’d have communicated with people, everyone, what was changing, why, and an attempt to build a community agreement of “best practices”.

I get upset with heavy handed approaches. FWIW I have 60 invites left. And, have been rejected for an increase. As an alumni ezine publisher, I have over 2k or active readers and a rolodex of 6k “live” alums. (And, some dead ones too. RIP! Whose families use their email account to keep in touch.) I also have professional rolodex of 10k from my consulting days. I can’t guess at the percent I know personally, but it is high. But LinkedIn doesn’t seem to see that as a legitimate use of their service. But, their “group” group just accepted LinkedInJaspers as a valid group. Like most organizations, policy and procedures aren’t uniform.

Like Digg just learned the hard way, the community can revolt. If LinkedIn doesn’t recognize that they have a tiger by the tail, then they should. Assume that one of the movers ‘n’ shakers gets annoyed at some tactic or other, LinkedIn could be faced with a competitor. If some one had the time and inclination, you could use them as a model. Do it better based on the mistakes they have made. And, poof, NIDEKNIL is born! All the Open Networkers move. Followed shortly by all the Recruiters. Followed shortly by all the JobSeekers. Followed shortly by all those employed but scared. LinkedIn will have its employees, those too lazy to move, the clueless, and the “strawmen”. Since NIDEKNIL is coded from scratch and knows the volumes, it can be better, faster, and cheaper than LinkedIn. Heck, it can even do an export / import from LinkedIn like those bozos at Jigsaw did. They sucked every public source of profiles, turned it into a db, and started selling it. They’re still there so I assume they are making money.

So, gazing into my crystal ball, I see that there is a path that LinkedIn could take to their doom. Hope they don’t take it, but they seem to be very oblivious to just how fickle the marketplace can be.

http://linkedintelligence.com/smart-ways-to-use-linkedin-a-group-blogging-project/

http://tinyurl.com/3dcxo8

Smart Ways to Use LinkedIn – A Group Blogging Project
by Scott Allen on May 1st, 2007

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A step-by-step guide to accomplishing a particular task or career or personal goal using LinkedIn.

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One Smart Way to Use LinkedIn – Create a granfalloon!

In the parlance of Malcolm Gladwin, I’m a “connector” and a “maven” but not so much of a “salesmen”. LinkedIn gave me an opportunity to help others, as well as myself. First a little background, then the guide.

As a crusty fat old white guy who’s been in IT since the year of the flood, I’ve been fired 4½ times and “transitioned” myself 4 times. (I’ll explain the half. It was when they thought they were nuking me, but I was hanging out waiting for the severance check with a nice opportunity in my back pocket. Technically they nuked me and paid me off. But, in my mind, it was serendipity.) My third transition was a more traumatic one where I didn’t initiate it. It was the first one where I was “surprised” by the axe coming down! Life administered a bitter lesson! Of course, being a life long learner, it didn’t take me more than once to realize “the rules”, and that those “rules” had changed silently right under my very nose. And, as a “turkey”, I did NOT like being in the “soup”. It was during this life lesson that I began reading the National Business Employment Weekly several times a day. That shows how truly clueless I really was, despite being well “educated”. So I was down on my luck and happened to read an article about a “granfalloon”. Huh? Never heard that word before. “A granfalloon is a proud and meaningless association of human beings.” per Kurt Vonnegut, who must have been talking about fans, Hoosiers, Netizens, and the blogging fraternity / sorority / union. I was desperate to make a break. My self-image was rotting from the inside out. So as an alumni of a modest small Catholic college with a big collective ego, that was my granfalloon. I sat down and started to “collect” every alum I could find, remember, talk to, email (yes we had email in those prehistoric times!). First thing you know, I was “networking”. Then, I found opportunities for other people. The rest was history. A “turkey” was hatched!

I have learned over the eons how valuable my fellow alumni can be. If you know who they are, where they are, and how to reach them. So I like to say I am an experienced old turkey. Now, my collection was ugly, error prone, sloppy, messy, and hit ‘n’ miss. But first with Plaxo, I began to clean up my act. And now with LinkedIn, my collection is not only “beautiful”, it is usable by my fellow alums. I have created, with the help of the editorial staff of Jasper Jottings (One fellow alum. Hi Mike!), and 2 alpha testers, LinkedInJaspers. I’m announcing it as open on May 15th, the feast day of Saint John the Baptist De La Salle, the patron saint of Jaspers. I even designed a logo that shamelessly mimics the work of Vincent Wright. With his blessing, I stood on his shoulders to copy what he had done for the different population of people. I don’t know if it will be a great success, but since I have ~1500 readers of my weekly ezine Jasper Jottings, I’m expecting several hundred to join the LinkedInJaspers group on LinkedIn.

You can use LinkedIn to create your own granfalloon and it’ll be much easier than when I did it.

Step by step guide:

(1) Decide if you really want to spend time building a granfalloon. It’s like a vineyard. You don’t harvest before you plant. It’s a strategy not a tactic. It’s a conveyor belt; not a silver bullet.

(2) Get a small sample of your proposed granfalloon together, and talk to them about if and how this interests them. (You can’t have a granfalloon if they feel no affiliation with it.) I had a core group of FOUR people encouraging me when I started. It’s in excess of 1500 now a decade and half later. It’s too big to even be bothered tracking. I’m an injineer; not an accountant. Remember it’s a strategy; not a tactic.

(3) Create a LinkedIn group (It takes weeks to get this done), a Yahoo Group for the underlying website (takes days; less, if you steal mine), and begin “collecting” your granfalloon. So if it’s your alma mater, then begin to find them. Of course as you invite them to the granfalloon, you are allowed to let them know what you’re looking for AFTER asking them what they want (First help; then be helped!).

I hope this helps you understand what a granfalloon is, and how you can use it in your “transition” activities. Remember three things: (1) You are only sure of the last paycheck that cleared your bank. (2) Your “job” is to find your next job without losing the one you have. AND (3) You never “land” until they plant you and put some flowers on you.

See the beauty of creating your granfalloon on LinkedIn is that it will help others. Remember first help; then be helped. And, it will take on a life of its own. Like a phoenix, which you can then “climb aboard and ride”. How’s that for not being a salesman? I didn’t even stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night. Smell that sizzle. Wait till you taste the results. Unbelievable.

Now let me tell you about my next project. I am seeking to be the self-declared dean of the “Sacred College of Scared FOWGs” (fat old white guys), where I can say with virtual certainty and absolute confidence, speak ex cathedra, from my belly button, that you will never hear of a bigger turkey than me.

Of course, I am available for consultations and confessions. I do wakes and weddings. And, I’m a notary.

>the underlying theory behind the concealment of connections to invitees.

Here’s a swag:

I believe I have seen (can’t prove it) a recruiter create “strawmen”. A fake online identity in LinkedIn. The profile was relatively complete. But, when you ping the person, you get no response. Since this particular “strawmen” and I were relative tight when we worked together. And, I’m kind of distinctive (gobble gobble big fat old turkey are easily identified), I’d have expected a response. There was no other introduction path to him other than thru this recruiter, the recruiter had contacts cloaked (so I couldn’t confirm others), and nobody responded to an inmail. Eventually the profile was deleted. So there’s one reason, “fraud”.

My lawyer has a LinkedIn persona, but cloaks his clients for fear of violating privilege.

A VC I know cloaks lest he give away anything accidentally

>It seems that the purpose of networking is to get and give contacts.

I don’t agree with the premise.

My purpose in networking is to “learn stuff”. That maybe to give and receive contacts, but not necessarily.

I believe that the PRIME DIRECTIVE of networking is to first seek to understand “stuff” (i.e., what can I do that others value; wisdom in using it to achieve my goals; how to establish the “weak ties” that are so valuable), then to be understood (i.e., let me tell you what I think I need).

The law of weak ties says something like “people are generally good; if they can help you, then they will; sometimes you need a spider’s web of “listening posts” around the globe that when trigger get you the needed information; that gets you a new job”. So, if I know what you want, say via a networking profile, (mine is at http://home.comcast.net/~v2y2r0n27rhj6y/DATA/Reinke_2005_networking_profile.htm), and I hear something that “fits”, then I’ll contact you.

So for example, when I am networking with a newly axed turkey, I get his networking profile and put it on my wall by the phone at work and my home office. (I use it as a reminder that I too will soon be out of a job and to pay attention to what is important!) We may never talk again, but as long as that profile is on my wall, that turkey has a chance of hearing from me.

That’s what I think networking is about.

Now some people will do nothing, but most will try to help. (In all the time I have been doing this, I have only had 4 people tell me to “buzz off”. Of course, I have put them on my “S” list. … … “S” is for “Special”!)

As long as you’re “easy to do business with”.

In terms of LinkedIn, even the Zero Help people, by the fact that they connect, even if those connects are hidden, they have made their contacts findable by you in search. You can connect to them with an InMail for a few bucks. So, unlike the old days, where Zero Help could frustrate you from looking their rolodex. With LinkedIn, that can’t happen. So Zero Help IS valuable, in that, his network is in LinkedIn!!!