All that said, LinkedIn Answers is a great, free benefit of LinkedIn membership! I’ve posted two questions recently; one of them receiving more than 25 replies; another resulting in an offer to chat with a business development pro on Skype next week for 10 minutes (plus all that he’d already wrote in his first reply to my answer).

I wrote sincere thank-yous to those respondents whose answers I really did find useful, often adding a good bit of additional opinion or clarification. I got further replies from some via email. It was a great community experience, and it has me thinking of my next business-related questions, and how I can then post some of the replies on my blog like Julius did.

If you haven’t tried it yet, and if you’re a [free] member like me, give it a shot. I’m getting better at crafting questions that aren’t overly self-promotional and might actually have value to others, again, contributing to the community and the grand idea of networking.