Juliet Carp reports on how to manage employee business connections
LinkedIn is an amazingly useful business tool for finding out more about people via the internet. It can help working people keep in touch, track down old contacts, find out more about people they would like to know, identify potential recruits, and offer a route to introductions. With over 65 million members, and growing, it is changing the way we manage business contacts (see www.linkedin.com).
How LinkedIn works
The concept is straightforward: enter the website, type in a name, and, if that person is a “member”, the “profile” they have posted will pop up. Members can choose to “connect” to other “members” and, in doing so, can share lists of “connections” with each other. When a member moves jobs he can update his profile, and all his connections can automatically be informed of his new role. Finding business people has never been easier.
Potential damage to business
Of course, an employer may not want his employee to “own” business contacts made during his employment and, in particular, may not want the
