The Global Human Capital Journal Unveils Review and

Helps Busy Executives to Tap Growing Online Professional Network

March 18, 2007, Chicago, USA—Today, The Global Human Capital Journal released its Review and The Unofficial LinkedIn User”s Guide to aid executives and professionals to mine the hidden value of the rapidly growing website. Founded in 2003, LinkedIn is a leading “social” network site for managing business relationships. It currently has over nine million global members who collaborate for professional purposes.

LinkedIn represents a transformation opportunity for the Global Human Capital Journal”s executive readership. Business and government leaders can significantly increase their ability to execute strategy by leveraging emerging peer to peer knowledge networks. Notably, an executive”s LinkedIn network is beholden to no employer and can increase mobility.

However, online social networks represent a new social milieu. Most executives interviewed by the GHCJ showed a clear mental gap in understanding the potential of online professional networks. Interviewees included LinkedIn members and nonmembers.

GHCJ Chief Editor Christopher Rollyson, a known networker in high tech and corporate circles, explained the motivation for the project:

“I saw a disconnect between LinkedIn and some of the people who would benefit most by using it—corporate executives and professionals. While LinkedIn”s features are well designed, its appeal to this audience is limited by the lack of a concise guide to help executives to rapidly assess and use LinkedIn. On a personal level, I wanted to encourage many of my offline contacts to join and collaborate.”

GHCJ”s Review of LinkedIn takes an in-depth look at privacy tools while the Unofficial LinkedIn User’s Guide tackles strategies for using LinkedIn for best results. The GHCJ has no economic arrangement with LinkedIn. (Update: In 2008, Editor in Chief Chris Rollyson launched The Executive”s Guide to LinkedIn as a consulting offering, but the Review and “Unofficial” User”s Guide predate that business and do not refer to it.)

Review of LinkedIn

The review helps executives to decide whether to use LinkedIn to further their business objectives. It can help you to be accessible to the right people while avoiding over-caffeinated connectors. It evaluates the site and how it delivers on the threads of its value proposition:

• Safeguarding information—what people can see, who can contact you and how s/he can contact you.
• Increasing efficiency—how LinkedIn helps members to quickly find people who can help them accomplish their goals.
• Collaborating effectively—key observations about building a network on LinkedIn.

The Unofficial LinkedIn User”s Guide for Executives and Professionals

The user”s guide concisely describes various features of the LinkedIn website and shows how to use them. It suggests several strategies for building robust networks as well as four models for optimizing members” ROI per time invested. The user”s guide has two sections, The Basics and Advanced Techniques.

The Basics

• Glossary of key LinkedIn Terms—the guide minimizes LinkedIn terms, but the fundamentals are defined and explained.
• The Different Network Levels and How They Work—the differences between your network, the LinkedIn network, outside networks and how they interact.
• Membership Types and Fees—the basic (“Personal”) LinkedIn membership is free, but this section compares all four levels of membership.
• Creating Your Network—how to join and build your network with purpose, so you”ll get more out of it. By building with purpose, you will increase your return per time spent.
• Four Models for Using LinkedIn to Maximize Return on Investment—Professional Presence, Network Management, Network Building and Network Living.

Advanced Techniques and Strategies

• Network Design Strategies—”tight” vs. “loose” tie networks and optimizing between the two to meet your goals.
• Inside Connections—LinkedIn is designed to help members leverage each other as “inside” connections to achieve their goals. How to use the site to locate connections and ask for their support.
• Your Network as a Community—how to increase the leverage of your network by creating connections, attitudes and habits among its members.
• Recommendations—the most unappreciated and underutilized feature on LinkedIn. How to use it to maximize your impact.
• LinkedIn Answers—the skinny on LinkedIn”s newest feature and how you can use it to increase the leverage of your network.
• Levels of Responsiveness—LinkedIn is a work in progress; how to understand varied levels of response to your initiatives.
• Other LinkedIn Resources—there are thousands of useful resources to help you with LinkedIn; this is a starter list.

For More Information

• The Review of LinkedIn
• The Unofficial LinkedIn User”s Guide for Executives and Professionals
• pr@globalhumancapital.org
• The Executive”s Guide to LinkedIn™ – official website (see comments)

About the Global Human Capital Journal

The Global Human Capital Journal addresses the global shift from the Industrial Economy to the Knowledge Economy, which is changing how human beings work and deliver value. In the Industrial Economy, products encapsulated the value of human work; in the Knowledge Economy, information produces the lion”s share of value, and customer experience itself is the focus of commerce and government. A greater degree of collaboration among people of the world is possible than ever before, and increased interaction will bring unprecedented surprise and opportunity, especially because the potential is great to “level the playing field” among people of the world. Obviously, these developments hold significant ramifications for business and organizational strategy.

The Global Human Capital Journal covers two prongs of economic transformation: 1) strategically, how organizations can rejuvenate their relationships with customers and constituents by collaborating with them to drive innovation and 2) operationally, how organizations can build strong collaborative cultures and skills to engage the world”s emergent network of expertise, both within and without their walls. We analyze how global sourcing and collaboration are transforming enterprise and government organizations, as they transition from relatively self-contained, closed entities to more networked, open organizations.