A Sincere Question About LinkedIn

I have a sincere question about LinkedIn, the professional social networking site. Do any of you ProfHacker readers find it to be useful? If so, how? (Okay, that’s two questions…) In her post titled “Creating Your Web Presence: A Primer for Academics,” Miriam Posner recommends creating a LinkedIn account (and also mentions Academia.edu). What’s been your experience?

I ask because the only time I log in is when someone requests a connection with me. Other than that, I don’t seem to have a reason to use it. Now I understand that it might be useful when advertising a new job on your campus, but I’d like to hear about any examples of how people have taken advantage of LinkedIn’s features in an academic professional context.

For that matter, do you recommend to your students that they sign up for an account? Why or why not? Please share in the comments!

[Creative Commons-licensed flickr photo by Tom Bech]