Hey Paul this an excellent post from a South African perspective. In other countries they have LinkedIn Live meetings and people are more aggressive. That is not always a good thing. So I have been pushing my connections using the LION and TopLinked open networking groups without upgrading to the paid subscription service.

For me the value in LinkedIn comes in the form of an ongoing updated resume, especially with the testimonials. So this is the first things I send people before a meeting. The second thing I am doing from time to time is to do marketing research or competitive analysis for myself and/or clients through my 1700+ direct connections. When I post questions to my direction connections I get a very good response because of the numbers but also quality response because of the typical profile of the LinkedIn user vs. Facebook users. In the last 12 months I have removed my Twitter, MySpace and Orkut profiles to focus on LinkedIn for business and Facebook for pleasure reasons.

My next challenge is working with head hunters to show them how to bypass the traditional recruitment model using LinkedIn in South Africa. And this may the avenue for you to identify other attorneys to collaborate or partner with depending on the nature or complexity of your assignments. And I’m very happy to see you’re connected to my friend Pria Chetty.