LinkedIn Answers: Business Contacts become Experts Edit

Yahoo! Answers gave every Yahoo! user a chance to answer other users’ question and become an expert. And now the business network LinkedIn has caught on the trend. Recently, the business network started LinkedIn Answers: members ask questions on products, branding, HR, law, manufacturing, management - and the community assumes the role of experts.

It’s a great way to interact with other members as well as market one’s expertise. Askers choose multiple good answers and one best answer which lands the answerer an expert point. Top experts are listed separately.

The service is being used to gain insights. I recently used LinkedIn answers to learn more about technologies used by Web 2.0 - and got to learn about the content management systems, the back-end software, and some simple cheat-sheet stuff on creating a Web 2.0 site. The funnies answer: Make good use of Arial Rounded Font and the word “beta.” You get the lot.

LinkedIn Answers is an example of the earlier described Communities 2.0 trend: social networks meet community-driven content base.

To use the service, you have to be an invited member.