Paying it forward with LinkedIn

One of the beautiful things about blogging, Twitter and LinkedIn, is the ability to watch books develop. David Meerman Scott, the uberblogger and author, is one person who capitalizes on social media channels to promote and develop his books. And so does my friend, Thom Singer, out of Austin.

Now, I just stumbled across Chuck Hester who is writing a book about "paying it forward" power networking on LinkedIn. Hester's blog calls for everyone to use their LinkedIn connection to help others advance. As Hester noted in his blog, if you have 10 minutes to help someone, "the blessing will come back to you!"

As someone who wants to build a network, I believe Hester has a point. A lot of us build connections, but do we ever do anything to help others with questions or issues. Most of us have "A what's in it for me?" attitude when it comes to using these Linkedin forums.

Hester's blog showed me that I needed to change my attitude about helping others. Here's hoping that this simple post will make others look at ways to use the power of LinkedIn to help others.