One-to-one messaging on LinkedIn, and some other nice new features!

Posted by andrey.golub at 18:55 | |

Comments

1. The groups update feature looks promising: group usage on LinkedIn has been rather cumbersome up until now.
   
   The internal e-mail system (similar to what already exists in Facebook and many other applications seems to be convenient, BUT you really do need to ask yourself: do you want ONE MORE place to search to find messages you sent out? I personally like having all of my written communications in one place.

   Posted by Sean Carlos on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 07:55

2. Ciao Sean, thank you for your comment!
   
   I won't agree only with your last statement about "one more place", but it's in fact just the way we're used to work with our Social Networks!
   I for example totally agree with the arguments of LinkedIn's Blogger- that when I am ALREADY on LinkedIn, and I work WITH IT, I's very nice to be able sending an easy message to my contact w/o a need to switch to my mail client! I have a profile of somebody open, and I see a chance in his/ her profile or there is something else I'll need to copy/past from LinkedIn/ the profile- so in this case it's very, very useful for me this new feature- internal messaging on LinkedIn!
   
   but I see you're talking about another thing: when you're NOT on LinkedIn, but you want to communicate with somebody- so of course it's useless to go to LinkedIn in this case, to send a message via contact's form :).
   Just send them a message via e-mail and it's done!
   
   I hope to have explained my point of view, is it a bit more clear now, Sean?

   Posted by Andrey on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 09:12

3. Andrey, the problem is a different one. Two months after you had an e-mail exchange with someone, you want to go back and look at the messages. You first have to remember WHERE the discussion took place.
   
   Just today I had a discussion with a potential business partner. This discussion took place in the Facebook e-mail system. Add LinkedIn, Viadeo, A Small World: it becomes impossible to find "historical" messages. Yes, the feature might be great for a quick initial contact - as long as you don't mind having multiple non-connected message silos, not my cup of tea.

   Posted by Sean Carlos on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 09:30

4. No, Sean, you're talking about the same thing: you want to COMMUNICATE with a person! so PLEASE use your e-mail client, and you won't have any history and memory problem! Nobody is inviting you to discuss business partnership via one-to-one messaging feature of LinkedIN :) it's just a nice feature, but if you have some different goals- do NOT use it and it's done! :)
   
   And the feature is designed just to be an addition to LinkedIn's UI, for the people like me, that time to time want to send an easy message to the person. It's like POKE of Facebook- do you always think about Business Partners when you Poke somebody? :) me- not!
   
   Sean, the world of Social Networking is not limited with Business Communication, and it's VERY VERY good! The world is SOCIAL, and the communication, I'd say the extremal communication, is one of the most important part of this new 2.0/ Social World.
   
   so please use your e-mail client and your local address book for the serious discussions with your contacts. But the other people (and also you in different situation), will also need just Social Communication, a POKE-style "keep-in-touch". I do this the whole day long :), on Facebook, Spock, through Instant Messaging and everywhere. And it's also true that in my Mail Client I have 7 different accounts, 100+ fules and 25 sub-folders. And each rule/ channel/ folder serves to a different goal.
   
   so, the question is not "different" here, the question is the same- to use the tools we have in a proper way. to not create a chaos 'coz of using the wrong communication channel instead of a right one, and then telling around that the tools are mistaken. I hope you'll now agree, Sean :) It's not only about Business, it's just a crazy SOCIAL world, and we're part of it!
   
   P.S. and it's another discussion about that there are several Social Networks where you should login to manage your Network inside. It's just the question of single-point-login to Social Networks, and I'll give you an answer very soon for what's the future of the Web 2.0 here :)
   But it's different discussion, not about using the wrong tools instead of a correct one in each situation.
   
   
   Thank you for the nice discussion, Sean.

   Posted by Andrey on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 10:00