So, what’s the deal with Spock?  It seemed like a good idea months ago when I got the invite.  I corrected some information that was in there (hey, how did they get that info, anyhow?) and invited a friend or two to join.  About 3 weeks ago, I got another invite.  Hmmm, thought I was in there already.  Whatever.  I go back in and correct some more incorrect, ill-gotten info, and see they now have a friend adder where, much like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc, they go through your email accounts to find other friends on the service.  I do this for LinkedIn, since Gmail’s connection to Spock was down (a blessing, as I would soon find out) and it apparently sent Spock connections requests to every single person in my LinkedIn network.  That’s over 200.  And if it had done it in Gmail, it would be to over 1,000 people.

The annoying thing is that the connection request happened so quickly, it barely confirmed or even said, “Are you sure?”  It just pulled the trigger and sent out all that bac’n.  At least it’s holiday time, so the perplexed contacts on my LinkedIn list got to wish me a Merry Christmas while they yelled at me for inviting them to the mess that is Spock. 

I also figured out that I am there as my work email and as my gmail, with no way to connect the two.  I never signed up as my work email but since Spock apparently trolls around gathering info on people and putting them in there, even if they don’t want to be, that will happen.  Unlike sites like Zoominfo, you can’t correct that, combine multiple listings, or even opt-out.  I don’t know what purpose Spock is supposed to serve, but other than giving me a rant to put in a blog entry or a worst practice case study for social networking, I don’t know what it is. 

That may sound like an incantation from “Wicked”, but no, sadly, it isn’t.  It’s yet another site to for me to practice my social network skills on.  I had signed up for Plaxo a while back when it was simply a place to keep addresses updated.  Then = simple, understandable purpose.  Now, it’s trying to be LinkedIn or Facebook or who knows what.  I tried to ignore it, but then I started getting connection requests coming in and I thought that I better check in (especially with someone named “Wiley” sent me a connection request.)  I claim somewhere to be a master of all things social networking – how can Plaxo elude me the way Twitter has? I clicked on the link to accept all of these, and it took me to a screen where the notice “that connection request has already been handled” came up.  Funny then that I cannot find these people in my connection list.  Did they try and connect and suddenly decide, nah, Ellen’s not my Plaxo type?  Did they fall into a Plaxo void?  No idea. 

I started with a whopping four connections (the usual Wiley suspects, my brother in law, and a friend from town.)  All of a sudden, I have 5 connect requests in my mailbox.  Why did Plaxo suddenly hit the radar screen for these folks?  I sent a note to the person who requested the most recent connection, who said he inadvertently requested connection with all his LinkedIn contacts.  That’s one way to build your network here, so I tried it and found a whopping 45 people on Plaxo connected to me already through LinkedIn.  So I intentionally sent connections to them.

So….now I’m connected, what should I be doing next?  This isn’t the most intuitive site.  I see a “Pulse Stream”  but so far only Jeff Pulver and Chris Webb have anything going in there.  Any suggestions from people who might have a better masterly of Plaxo than I of what to do next?  How to use this site for good, and not the evil that comes from time wasting?

The Dummies team is working on a LinkedIn book.  At first, the response around the table was that LinkedIn is pretty easy and most people would not need a book to set up a LinkedIn account.  As the discussion evolved, people who have used LinkedIn for profile building, job hunting, and social networking started piping up with things they wanted to see covered.  I ended up calling the acquisitions editor after the meeting with a whole list of things I want to be able to do on LinkedIn but cannot figure out how to make them happen. 

 So I turn it over to others – what would YOU want to see in a LinkedIn For Dummies book?  What are you trying to do that you cannot figure out how to do, or what are you doing that you want to try and do better.  Use this opportunity to help shape a new book!