A fellow named Fons Tuinstra posted a lament about the usefulness of his LinkedIn account in terms of developing his business relationships.

He said the following in a blog posting at Poynter.org:

A key piece of advice from social network experts -- and from most social networks themselves -- is that you should only add people you really know to your contact lists. This advice has only one weak point: users.

I have been reasonable careful about adding people, but that did not help me when I wanted to use my network. A large number of people, including many of my contacts, have so many "friends," that they cannot realistically know them personally.

Consequently, Linkedin and possibly also other networks are corrupted to a degree where they are actually useless for business purposes. That might be an important consideration for potential investors in such business-related networks.

I post that because I have a LinkedIn account, and I've been getting requests to network from people with whom I don't even have the slightest connection either personally or professionally. I've been generally giving the thumbs-down to those.

Frankly, I see LinkedIn more as a way to keep in tenous touch with those I've already known or worked with (and who are on LinkedIn), rather than a way to meet new people.

But I given the cold calls from people I have absolutely nothing in common with, I find myself sympathizing with the view of Mr. Tuinstra.