DISQUS

Agree with Don. One of the most mystifying and frustrating experiences is to see proposals that look pretty, show general competence and enthusiasm, but don't respond to the brief. I suspect this is sometimes (often?)because a general purpose proposal is topped and tailed for a specific response - not smart.

Glen
Just what I've been looking for. One problem though, it ain't working for me. Here's what it says in the sidebar:

Click and drag to move your bubble.
After the bubble has been moved (or "pinned"), a new button with an arrow pointing to bubble's parent will appear on its title bar. Click it to reset bubble's position.

I've tried several times, to no avail. Just the one original button, with my text in it now to be sure, just wants to be alone, I think.

The Help button is not helpful.

Denise
It's a shame you have not had a better response from people. I can assure you there are some quite active people on LinkedIn who are keen to help others use it well. For example the amazing Liz Ryan of WorldWIT - Women in Business and Technology. www.worldwit.org. And one of the best, well managed, discussion groups on LinkedIn to join is LinkedInnovators http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/LinkedInn.... Of course I can't promise there aren't some idiots there, but the discussions are civilized and mutually helpful.
I hope that helps.

Fern and John
I don't have magic answers. What has worked for me is that through LinkedIn I have been able to connect with and be available to, a lot of very smart, very accomplished people of various ages and nationalities. And through the wider network which that has helped me build and the discussion groups, mainly on Yahoo, which I belong to, business offers have come to me and I've been able, as in the example above, to connect other people with one another.

Having your profile up to date is important. A lot of people neglect to update their profile and I've often been surprised to find that people who I know have great skills have joined LinkedIn but put no effort into their profile as a selling document. And it's really easy to get someone who knows you and your business to click on your profile and give you some feedback. The other day I helped a colleague re-write his profile to highlight his amazing skill set which he had not outlined so clearly.

Happy to be interviewed, John.

In the meantime, I recommend Scott Allen's excellent LinkedIntelligence blog for clues on using LinkedIn well - I doubt anyone knows LinkedIn, warts and all, better, and Scott is a great sharer. www.linkedintelligence.com

Great questions. Overall my experience is very positive. I stick to the idea that it is, as designed, a way to organise my networking, as distinct from a way to network. And I'm very choosy about my connections. With many others, I do a lot of LinkedIn related networking on special interest Yahoo groups. Through my LinkedIn connection I have co-authored two books which are selling nicely, thank you, and more business is coming my way through LinkedIn. Today, from Australia's Gold Coast, via Skype, via Austin Texas, I was able to find 12 highly specialised people for a specific project being organised by another person in another US state. I am able now to recommend my contact to those people through a contact they know and trust. That's the power of LinkedIn. And yes, there are people who abuse the system and that's annoying, but LinkedIn, like life, is what you make it: it's a tool which can be used expertly and helpfully and if used inexpertly can hurt you (timewise, businesswise)

Thanks Duncan
I have to admit it's a nice feeling as well as an honour to be in your list.Good to see young Yaro in there - he is going great guns and I'm very pleased to see him getting recognition.