I can't get enough of LinkedIn. The businessman's MySpace, LinkedIn has basically crept out of nowhere to become the default social network for people who MAKE THINGS HAPPEN. I make some things happen, certainly, but I never really felt like a real mover and shaker--until I buffed up my LinkedIn profile.

Now, I look like a real networking maniac. LinkedIn is basically a resume on steroids, and it does look pretty good once you encapsulate the first 15 years or so of your career on one page. Add a few recommendations from high-up sounding colleagues and business friends, and your bonafides go right up. But the real power in LinkedIn is more in who you know, than what you know.

True, I personally know only about 400 of the 1000+ people in my LinkedIn network, and probably would feel comfortable grabbing a drink with about 125 of them. That's okay, though, because they want to know me. Either that, or they want to be able to know me in case they need me. I feel the same way. I need business contacts the way a junkie needs his next skinpop of heroin. Good contacts are the lifeblood of media business, and you might as well stock up while the getting's good. And the getting is incredibly good right now.

Some call building a huge LinkedIn contacts database "open networking." Others call it "promiscuous linking." Some people take unkindly to those LinkedIn users with the "500+" designation after their name (the highest number LI will assign a user). Ridiculous. The more the merrier. Call the link whores what you want but I know that, sooner or later, you'll be asking to join my network too.

After all, it's who you know.