Making sense of social media is a daunting task. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, various Ning networks, etc all vie for our time and our energy, each supposed to serve a purpose yet often seeming more like redundant spaces. Beginning last year, I made it my mission to figure out all these spots I had profiles on and understand better how to use them to achieve my online purpose.
LinkedIn is one of these as the network for the more business-minded. I had a profile but probably only went onto it once every couple of months. I’m still finding my rhythm on LinkedIn but do find that it works for networking from a professional perspective. I am able to interact with others in my field of interest, make recommendations and recommended, and highlight what I am doing professionally.
I don’t know that I’ll ever get a full handle on social media, but I am gradually finding a way to manage the time and energy I spend on each one. For one, being a BlackBerry® user, I use the various applications for BlackBerry® like Ubertwitter (still waiting to use the BlackBerry® for Twitter app), Facebook and even WordPress.
Finally, LinkedIn has launched its LinkedIn For BlackBerry® application to complement the existing mobile apps for iPhone® and Palm Pre™. The application is available on www.linkedin.com/blackberry and BlackBerry App World™ for BlackBerry® Tour™, BlackBerry® Curve™ and BlackBerry® Bold™ series of smartphones
Key functionality includes:
- Search: Prepare for any meeting by quickly accessing LinkedIn profiles
- Messages: Enables users to manage their LinkedIn inboxes on the go
- Network Updates: Stay connected to the professional conversation
- Connections: Make new connections away from the computer
- Invitations: Send invites to new connections to build professional networks
- Reconnections: Users receive recommendations of who they may want to add to their professional networks
I haven’t had the chance to give it a run yet and would be curious to hear thoughts on how useful it actually is. For more info, check out the LinkedIn blog.