Paid for LinkedIn: yes or no?

[PermaShattered]

I often get emails about this from LinkedIn. Of course, they want my cash but is it really worth it? And if so, what's the benefits? I've been prompted to ask as a client has now asked me to make the decision for him! All thoughts gratefully received.

I think it depends very much on how you are going to use it. If you/your client wants to contact lots of new people that are out of your network then I think it is worth it.

However, you can generally work out what somebody's name is and find their details elsewhere if you are very determined.

I am always wary of people that Inmail me, their messages are always so spammy. I would always try for a tailored message even if you are contacting lots of people.

Not sure that is much help!

I don't bother. I generally only link to people who I am already working with. If they agree to link with you, you can see all their details anyway.

it might be worth it for getting jobs though.

I dip in and out of being a paid member.

The advantages are you can do better searches and see more information on people you don't know - it's useful if you are trying to find names to generate business leads or find out more about companies you want to approach. That said, if I do that I then generally try to find another way of contacting them by phoning the company switchboard or whatever, rather than by InMail as I don't think that gets a great response.

The other 'advantage' is that you can see exactly who has viewed your profile. Although I have come to the conclusion that while this satisfies my own curiosity, knowing this has not once led to any great business insight, other than to see which of my ex-colleagues are looking at what I'm doing...

I work in market research and have occasionally used it for finding targets that fit a certain profile for research projects - but that's fairly niche.

What I would say is that they throw offers around all the time. So only sign up when they're offering a massive discount. Keep it for a couple of months, unsubscribe. Then within a week or so they'll be offering you massive discounts again to tempt you back. So I dip in and out when I think I need that bit of extra info, and take advantage of the offers.

I can see who has viewed my profile and I'm not a paid member.