Are you reliable and useful to friends?

This blunt question is essentially the one question people may have to ask themselves.

Indeed, generally speaking, you are reliable and useful to friends if:

1. you have a decent number of connections (say, 30 or more)
2. your profile shows clearly your career objective (this will inspire your friends to strive to achieve a similar degree of control over their professional affairs)
3. you have endorsements (this will reassure your friends that you can help them in a professional manner)
4. your profile shows specifically the employers you worked for and in what capacity (this will help them determine whether you can answer certain technical questions or employer-related questions)

Can a person NOT use LinkedIn and still try to be useful to his/her friends?

It's possible. You can support your friends emotionally, for example, when they go through a tough period.

But to support them socially (introduce them to friends or acquaintances) and economically (help them find a more rewarding or higher-salary job), LinkedIn is the best.

(Oh, I tried Ryze, but it's a bit messy and they keep sending me stats which, unfortunately, have nothing to do with my networking goals! But I'm sure the people behind Ryze are good and smart people, perhaps they can learn a bit from LinkedIn's business-like approach and simple interface. Just my two cents!).

(Disclosure: I am not on the payroll of LinkedIn, nor do I receive any commissions based on new user registrations. I just love this new tool!)