Do a search on this blog and you will see that I am a huge fan of LinkedIn in using the tool as part of your job search, (LinkedIn Experiment. 10/08.). As of recent, LinkedIn has changed some of their policies and procedures possibly limiting the depth of network a LinkedIn member may have when they conduct a member search.

LinkedIn Levels LION Networkers

Previously, as a free member of LinkedIn, a person could conduct a member search for a keyword like Accountant and receive a list of those with the word Accountant in their profile but only within your network of connections. Those with a small network suffered since they had less connections resulting in a smaller number of results. And those with a large network, had more results without having to pay for the LinkedIn Gold and Platinum services that range from $50-500 a month. The paid services center around the ability to increase your search capabilities along with the ability to send a designated number of InMails each month outside of your network of contacts.

LION users, also know as Open Networkers build connections within their network of contacts without having any personal or professional relationship with their connections. A member does this to enable the user and those connected to him/her to access their large network without having to pay LinkedIn to use the service. I, myself am an Open Networker and have encouraged my readers to use this tactic to increase their connections and widen their search pool when in the job hunt.

LinkedIn is now limiting the number of connections a user to 30,000 which is roughly 1% of the total number of registered LinkedIn users (Wikipedia estimates LinkedIn users to be over 30 million). I’ll explore more in later postings as further information is available.

Until then, feel free to add me to your network. Please reference blogging4jobs in your invite.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jmillermerrell

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