Frankly, this latest wheeze from the world of business class social networking comes as little surprise???

When I review the LinkedIn profiles of colleagues I have recently worked with or directly managed, their recollection of the work they did and skills they possess have mushroomed beyond all recognition. They've become experts in Siebel or SAP implementations, just because they had some end-user training. Others have become "Project Managers" and "Change Management" gurus, despite never having led a project or managed a programme of change, and indeed, never having received any formal training in these disciplines.

Indeed, one lad is apparently now a telephony expert, and claims to have migrated a call centre in the north to a Cisco VoIP system. Errr??? no you didnt - I worked closely with the team that did, and you worked in that call centre answering the phone. You showed aptitude for utilising the system, and you were labelled a user expert, but nothing more.

As an experiment, I tried creating a fictitious LinkedIn profile a while back, and used a single letter from the alphabet in the skills and experience sections. Sure enough, I had two endorsements within 24 hours. I think that speaks for itself.

In many cases, it seems LinkedIn is utilised just for inadequates to massage their egos in public. I can't see much use for it in the real world.

Having said all that, I'm still on it, just in case...