I was having a delightful conversation with Chris at Organic Inc. when he looked at me all puzzled:

"You aren't LinkedIn?" he asked, obviously disgusted by my lack of savvy.

I admitted that I HAD received a couple of invitations and I HAD heard of the network, but after Friendster and Classmates and Meetup blah blah blah...I was just bored of the whole 'let's sign up to another network that I'll never ever use and that will send me reminders that tell me that I never ever use it'. The people who had previously sent me the invitation were great friends, but having years of history with online meetups and coming away feeling blah about them, I couldn't catch their enthusiasm.

But all of a sudden, this important VP guy, obviously well hooked up already, is telling me that I am crazy to NOT join LinkedIn. So, he sent me an invitation and I joined.

It's a pretty great network thusfar. They make it uber simple for someone to invite others. They import all of the email addresses you've sent to in the past 6 months from Outlook and ask you to choose who you want to LinkIn(to). Click here, click there - next thing you know, you're sending a 'come join me' message to 100 people. I haven't even BEGAN to search for those already in the network who I know.

All day, I've checked back to see how many people have LinkedIn(to) me. I have 25 and counting. I feel quite popular. My 'host', Chris, has 160. Ken Shafer has 115. These guys are true connectors. Apparently, other than boosting my ego, there are all sorts of other functions, so I look forward to playing around and getting to see how I can use it better.

All in all, though, there is a lesson here. Three things have to be in place for ideas to 'stick':

1. A good message (great new network - good for business)
2. A good delivery (you haven't signed up? are you nuts? kind of enthusiasm)
3. The messenger (someone you respect or trust)

I wonder what Marshall McLuhan would say. Anyone?