I instantly understood Twitter and I quickly learned to kinda appreciate Facebook…but for the longest time, I used to wonder what the deal was with LinkedIn? A year or so ago, I started getting these messages from friends that said they wanted to connect with me via LinkedIn so I signed up and clicked the little thing that said yes, my friends could connect with me…
…and that was it. Nothing more happened. It seemed to be a networking site where no one networked or at least, they didn't network in my direction. It was like a lame cyberspace version of "Tag, you're it" where all LinkedIn did was suggest that I connect with more people. And more people and more people. I was supposed to upload my entire address book (that's 900+ people) so LinkedIn could send them all messages about joining LinkedIn. I didn't do this. I was supposed to consider linking to folks whose names they showed me…folks who seemed to be in the same industry as me. This meant that they showed me a lot of people who worked at Freelance. I didn't do this, either. I received a couple of actual messages through the service but all from folks who already had my e-mail address and could have written me that way. So why were any of us on LinkedIn?
I finally developed the theory that LinkedIn wasn't for people like me who are all over the Internet. I mean, yes, I do occasionally hear that someone somewhere is having trouble finding my e-mail address and I marvel that anyone that dumb even knows how to turn on their computer. If Google doesn't get you here in two shakes, you can always try typing www.markevanier.com or even just www.evanier.com…and, Eureka!, you find one of my sites. Then all you have to do is somehow decipher that link at the right that says "E-Mail me." But not everyone is easy to find on the 'net and maybe LinkedIn is just to make sure that those folks have a means of connecting with others of common interest. That's what I figured.
Then today, I got a LinkedIn request from an actress I know named Kelli Maroney. There is no male — alive or dead, straight or gay, horizontal or perpendicular — who would turn down an invite to connect, even via something as non-connective as LinkedIn, with Kelli Maroney. When I went to click on "Yes, oh God, yes" (or whatever it said), I noticed that LinkedIn wanted to also link me with other folks it thought I might want to communicate with…like, as you can see above, Dan DiDio. Dan DiDio is the head honcho these days at DC Comics, an outfit I've worked for since Richard Nixon was honeymooning with the press. So sure, I'd like to communicate with Dan DiDio but I could just pick up a phone and do that.
And then below that, I saw the chance to communicate with one of my closest friends, Steve Gerber — and I thought, "Wow!" Steve passed away in February of 2008 and I've missed him…and it turns out that this isn't one of the 55 other Steve Gerbers on LinkedIn. I went to this one's profile page and sure enough, this is my old buddy, the late Steve Gerber. There's even a link there to his weblog which I've been running for him since he died.
Of course, I want to connect with him again. I can't do that on friggin' Facebook. And now I understand the miracle of LinkedIn. It can connect you with departed friends and loved ones…and for a lot less than that Sylvia Browne lady charges to tell you that your grandmother is in a peaceful place. In fact, I'll bet LinkedIn can get you as close to them as Browne, John Edward, John Van Praagh or any of those "I can communicate with the dead for a price" people can. I am not, however, going to use it to contact my grandmother who died 20 years ago. I already believe she is in a peaceful place and I don't want to ruin that by badgering her with stupid messages from LinkedIn.