I’m On LinkedIn – Now What?

I want to share some thoughts I have about some web applications that I’ve been using. Jason Alba wrote the book I’m On LinkedIn – Now What to explain how to use LinkedIn. But the thing is, the real answer to the Now What question is the web application that Jason wrote. LinkedIn is for building your profile and connecting with others. But once you do that – now what? The answer is Jibber Jobber. It’s a great tool to assist with a job search, should you be looking for one, but it’s really so much more. It’s a contact relationship management tool for maintaining relationships between contacts, jobs and companies in your network, as well as some other important things.

Jibber Jobber offers a number of features that just aren’t in LinkedIn. One feature, which I think is awesome, is the tree view of your network. Let me explain. You’re connected to Tom. Tom is connected to Fred and helps you connect with him. So Fred who was a second level connection to you, now becomes a first level connection in LinkedIn.

Three months down the road, after you have added several new contacts, you remember that someone helped you connect with Fred who helped you connect with others, but you can’t remember who. With LinkedIn, that information is lost, but with Jibber Jobber, it’s there, provided when you imported Fred’s information you selected that you connected to him through Tom. So you go to the Tree View on your Jibber Jobber page and see that Tom introduced you to Fred, who introduced you Martha, who introduced you to Mike, who recommended you for a new position.

So LinkedIn is good to help you build your network, but Jibber Jobber is the tool you want to use to maintain the relationships in your network, as well as the other things. In upcoming posts I’ll be sharing more about LinkedIn, Jibber Jobber and other tools that are beneficial to know and use. The thing is if we’re going to take the time to build a network, we should take the time and make an effort to maintain it, because as we are told over and over, it’s all about networking.