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LinkedIn now has in excess of 35 million members, with a strong business focus. About half of LinkedIn members are outside the U.S.A.
It's not very clear what LinkedIn is useful for when you first join. There are huge numbers of people who have joined, but because they have close to zero contacts far too many sit isolated and inactive.
I'm a heavy user of LinkedIn, (7300+ direct connections). Early in 2008, LinkedIn has had troubles with customer service. However, they obtained new capital of $58 million in June, 2008, and we have seen imprioved service and development of the Linkedin site since.
If you read how the developers of LinkedIn intended it to work, you'll understand that they expected users to "KNOW" each other and only to pass on the connection to people they know, to "trusted connections". BUT, all the leading users of LinkedIn use it in a different way. They are quite happy to accept invitations from people they don't know, provided that:
1) that new person has completed a reasonably full profile, and
2) there is open access to the names of the people you are connected too.
This helps people to grow their networks faster, and for a bit of serendipity to come into play.
Very occasionally someone appears who has a false profile, or who after making a connection becomes a nuisance. LinkedIn is built on TRUST, so betrayal of trust is a severe transgression. Word spreads like wildfire if people do silly things. LinkedIn also weeds out people who break their rules very quickly. I've only had problems with a LinkedIn contact three times, and it was always quickly resolved.
LinkedIn is a network that business people like. It doesn't require a lot of personal time, because there is no requirement to join groups. However in the beginning you have to look for people to join your network. Once people have 35 or more connections, they seem to reach a tipping point where the usefulness of those connections becomes apparent. Sadly the mean number of connections for the 600 people in my sample is 4. To have 20 connections is to join the top 25%. Once people get 30 or 35 connections they seem to take off, and it becomes easier and easier to make new connections as people start to flow into your network. A very easy way to extend your network is to connect to me, here's a reason why (video).
Open Future Limited and many other training providers around the world will help you get started on LinkedIn. But first of all you need to be a little proactive. Sign yourself in and invite some people to join you. We make that easy here. It might take you some hours over 6 months to perfect your profile on LinkedIn, but you can join and make an invitation in 10 minutes. That's what you should do now.
JOIN: Use this link to join LinkedIn.
Make a connection to John Veitch. Use the Quick Invite Boxes on your Welcome page. You need two things, my name, and my email address.
Guess what this is? john.s.veitch AT gmail DOT com
Now if you go to this page you'll find many resources to help you get started.
Most of the people who have joined LinkedIn have not made a good job of completing their profiles. LinkedIn does well in encouraging you to enter all your qualifications and work experience. There is a distinct need for training in the effective use of LinkedIn and that is one of the services Open Future Limited is offering.
Stan Relihan talks to Ron Bates in this very interesting interview about the value of Linkedin.
We also offer you access to LinkedIn Training almost anywhere in the world. Here is our list of 
International Training Opportunities
Once you are established on LinkedIn you also need to join one of the networks that has active discussion forums. It's in the process of discussion that you learn who's who and what's going on. This is vital knowledge and it can't be gathered quickly. However once you begin to accumulate that knowledge, the process of discussion helps you make that knowledge part of yourself. The process of discussion empowers you to speak and act effectively, to know the difference between up and down with certainty.
You need to find between 6 and 10 "sources of rich data" which will be the groups that you join. Those groups need not be in social networks, but for newbies, that's the easiest way to find suitable groups.
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