LinkedIn Is A Networking Connoisseur

I am a huge fan of LinkedIn ... huge enough that I was included in their 100 Million Members campaign that broke last March as a way to celebrate reaching this important pinnacle in their evolution.

Now, I don't hand out my loyalty to just anyone. In my mind, a brand has to earn my trust and respect in order for me to become emotionally connected to the brand.

LinkedIn has done that in spades.

Over the years, they have provided me with the tools needed to become a far better networking and prospecting strategist. What I like most is that they never relax. Instead, they continually make improvements to their user interface, constantly devising ways to help their users seamlessly network with colleagues, clients, and prospects.

Case in point. Yesterday, I received an email from LinkedIn.  The email contained a montage of pictures. To my delight, I actually knew the people pictured in this collage! It turns out they are individuals in my contact database that have changed jobs or revised their status since the beginning of the year.

But, the fun didn't stop there. Each picture was hot-linked to their LinkedIn profile. Plus, cute little messages, like "See Megan's new job" and "Where is Katherine?" were highlighted throughout the picture collage.

With this one simple email campaign, I was able to quickly determine which of my connections had changed jobs this year. People that were of particular interest to me required only one click to catch up with what is going on in their professional life.

Now, you must understand that I am seldom wowed by email campaigns. I get over 100 emails a day and, frankly, I have a really hard time processing all that information each and every day. But, LinkedIn has clearly found a way to break through all that clutter by asking themselves one simple question, How can we help our users? How can we help Sue?

This is a great reminder to all marketers. Stop adding to all the information clutter out there. Stop stroking your own ego. Ground yourself in the mindset of the target. And ask yourself one key question:

What can I do to help?