...to think that LinkedIn isn't so mum-friendly?

[semi]

I am a working mum with quite a few professional contacts on Linkedin and have found that most self-employed women/mumpreneurs I've spotted in the press haven't got a Linkedin profile. What's that all about? Don't virtual networks well lend themselves to busy mums? Or is it that we just don't like to share what we are up to? Talk about our successes/achievements?

How many people are on LinkedIn because it is actually useful, rather than because they joined it to see what it was, forgot their password, and then didn't find the spam quite annoying enough for it to be worthwhile retrieving password to log in and deregister?

I have this vision of tens of thousands of names just circling slowly in an ether of meh.

Lol that's me Floaty! I joined because I worried I was missing something....I'm missing nothing. There are no jobs on there...I do have connections to various clients of mine on there but they all have my contact details anyway if they want to get in touch!

I am freelance. I use it. I have been "re-found" on it by many ex-colleagues and that has led to work.
I am also a semi-active member of a group on there that is very useful cpd.

I'm a mum and have a linkedin profile. Not as a mum you understand, that would be odd

I'm not on Linked -in.Wouldn't benefit the very local ,word of mouth business I run from home.My DH is and it's been fairly beneficial in his industry..However I'm damned ,sure great dad as he is , he's never wondered if the site is 'dad friendly' or felt any information about him being a parent was remotely relevant to his profile and connections on there.
When I was promoting the services I provide,and in any continuing advertising I do ,I don't need to advertise the fact I am a mum.YABVU OP.

wow I never knew I was a Mumlicitor, recently changed career to become a Mumerrcial Mumoperty Mumanager. being a mum really does define me in every walk of life

I am an entrepreneur and I own my own company employing several people. I even started it because I wanted professional independence after having my first child. I would never DREAM of belittling my achievements of the last 4 years with the term "mumpreneur", which would reduce me (with all due respect to those successfully making squillions at it) to the level of people making their own recycled felt cloth nappies and baby wipe bunting.

I am on LinkedIn and I use it exclusively for business networking, which is an area of my life where the fact that I have children is irrelevant, apart from the fact that as an employer who happens to have children, I run (what I hope is) a very parent-friendly office.

No it's really useful for recommending my Junior staff to give them a lift up in the industry and as I mentioned the number of times I got headhunted.

And today I got headhunted again actually, for Milan!

I'm not an Entrpreneur, I'm a wage slave - am I still allowed to click the Nipple?

I don't remember any questions about reproduction when I signed up.

I think to answer the OP's question it is nothing to do with LinkedIn being mum friendly or not, just that lots of people don't use it and so that is why you can't find everyone on it

My work capabilities are not affected by the fact that I have had children
therefore my family status is irrelevant to what I put on Linkedin.

www.mumsnet.com/workfest/programme.....am pretty sure Linkedin will be on the agenda for this mumsnet event. let's hope no one dares to say the 'm' (umpreneur) word!

I don't think anyone paid by MNHQ would dare mention it

I dont understand what your last post have to do with anything, Semi.

Pin money at cupcakes? Patronising bunch. Mumpreneurs netted the economy millions last year. Stick that up ur twinset and pearls!

I've seen so much bile on here recently against sahms, and now at mums trying make a good balance, run a business and contribute. Just why are so many on mn so patronising or spiteful to other women struggling along just like they are? It's baffling. Jealousy? Gotta be surely?!

I've taken most of the posts here to suggest that that is exactly why the word 'mumpreneur' implies pin money from cupcakes when actually these are women who are successfully making money for themselves, whether its from bunting or the latest biomedical gizmos and gadgetry and therefore it's condescending to dismiss their work through such a twee and lazy term.

They are Entrepreneurs! What has mum got to do with what they do?

Mumtrepeneurs is patronizing and demeaning.

That made no sense

I meant the word implies that whole 'pin money from cupcakes' mindset, which is condescending and patronising to entrepreneurial businesswomen, which is what they are, no matter what they're making their money from.

I used LinkedIn today to check on the background of someone I've got a business call with tomorrow. It helps me prepare.

LinkedIn has its uses in a business context. Marital/parental status is irrelevant.

What the actual fuck is a mumpreneur? I don't normally swear on mn but as a self-empolyed business woman in a professional field I am offended deeply by the idea that whether or not I have given birth is relevant to my business.
Where are the dadpreneurs? Or is parenthood only important for women in business???

I am not patronising or being spiteful to women by belittling that phrase, it is the phrase itself that is patronising and spiteful.

'I am not patronising or being spiteful to women by belittling that phrase, it is the phrase itself that is patronising and spiteful'

That's what I was trying to say, just not quite as clearly

I've always viewed LinkedIn as professional/business networking... I have a profile on there and use it in a professional capacity.

FB is for fun, personal daftness, and socialising. It's for the real unapologetic 'me'. LinkedIn is purely for the business me, the professional me and my online behaviour there is very very different.

I don't mind the term Mumtrepeneurs being used in the right context, a self funding hobby directly related to your own motherhood, but in a true business context is has no place at all. I mean would a Chairman of the Board of Directors put up with being referred to as a Chairmum just because she also happens to have children?

I've been a Mumtrepeneur and it was great fun and quite successful (it provided a few luxuries whilst I was a SAHM) , had I taken it to the next stage so it provided an income above minimum wage, and required me to need childcare etc., then I would simply have evolved into a businessperson. I would never belittle any mum who has a hobby that earns a few pounds, as I've been there. In the end I gave it up and got a regular job, it's now an occassional hobby.

Think I'll change my LinkedIn profile to show that I am a Commumications Manager so that other mums can find me.

[I have this vision of tens of thousands of names just circling slowly in an ether of meh*

There have been three or four people on this thread who have said that LinkedIn is useful to them.
Apart from those few, has anyone else on this thread (or in the wider world) ever got a job through it? I was a member for three years then left because it seemed like a never ending orgy of name-tag, leading to Nowhere At All.

LinkedIn is a professional network not a social network. Most people on there don't consider or cares whether you are a mum, dad, one eyed green goblin as long as you have the skills, experience they require or you can connect them to someone thy would like a business relationship with....

have found that most self-employed women/mumpreneurs I've spotted in the press haven't got a Linkedin profile. What's that all about? Don't virtual networks

Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they don't have an account. You can hide or only allow access to your information to people that are first, second or third contacts via your network.

Agree with Tess mumpreneurs makes me cringe.... Where did that saying come from? So deeming.. Entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs regardless of whether they are parents...