A fellow b2b editor introduced me to LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com), a few months ago, and the concept was intriguing to me. I've been using it ... and getting associates to sign up ... but in some ways, it almost feels like a pyramid scheme. I haven't really "done" anything with it, other than get friends to sign up and hope that they'll do the same.

Do any of you use it? Has it actually helped you in networking or building industry contacts for your magazine? How has it been useful?

You tried to get me to sign up. I didn't. It seems, well, seamy. We'll see, I guess.

I now have about 70 contacts there, but I haven't really done much with it yet.

Interestingly, there's a link at the bottom of the most recent American Business Media eNewsletter that says, "Befriend ABM on MySpace." Didn't realize that was something they were pushing ...

Oh, I LOVE LinkedIn. North of 300 contacts and I spend 15-30 minutes a day there for one reason or another.

Think about it for a second. Your resume interlinked with thousands of others. Find people in the past. Meet people in the present. Establish new relationships for the future.

Through LI, I figured out that the AP's Andean chief, whom I know through a freelancer, knows the CTO at my brother's software company in San Diego. Useless? Maybe, but imagine how many useful connections I could be making by adding just a *few* more connections. (It's addictive like that.)

Just spend a few minutes in the Answers section alone. I have posted a couple of knotty problems there and boom! a dozen expert answers from highly placed professionals who *want* to help me. Wow...

My profile
http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbrown

A question I asked about e-mail newsletter open rates, with excellent answers
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/marketing-sales/writing...AR_WED/16624-2330311

You win -- I'll give it a try with that kind of ringing endorsement. I'm still staying away from MySpace though.

I wouldn't even compare the two. Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, is also involved in FaceBook, a MySpace competitor.

Difference is, he began LinkedIn by dumping his own Outlook contacts into the database. He's got skin in the game, as they say.