So where does Plaxo not overlap LinkedIn, and what's Pulse? I ask. Responds McCrea, "Plaxo is less about helping users get introductions to other users and more about keeping you richly connected to people you already know and care about. We added Pulse-our version of social networking-to deliver feeds, blogs, links to stories, photos, videos, eCards... it's much more about content sharing." Also, McCrea says, Plaxo now comes in a mobile version (m.plaxo.com).

And herein lies the difficulty in categorizing communications and networking tools like LinkedIn and Plaxo: they're so competitive and fast-changing that, at virtually the same time McCrea is promoting his system's mobile version as something seemingly unique, LinkedIn is announcing its own site optimized for the Smartphone experience. Meanwhile, both sites are duplicating popular third-party communications tools like Twitter, for example. (Twitter is a Web site that connects users for the purpose of answering a single question,  "What are you doing?" Although Twitter isn't universally known yet, LinkedIn and Plaxo have already incorporated its query onto their own sites, making them moving targets of bundled communications utilities that can return tremendous benefits-if you commit yourself to trying out their frequent additions and improvements.

So which system is right for you? In spite of their differences, they both help you keep your contacts up to date. McCrea has his opinion: "One thing I observe in my interactions with financial advisors is the ones who do the best job end up being like a friend or family member to their clients." In other words, those clients who know you really well and who are on Plaxo/Pulse might like to view the home movie you uploaded to YouTube and linked to your Plaxo page.

In truth, I believe a lot of advisors would like to see one site that does all of what LinkedIn and Plaxo/Pulse do, and maybe that's where the competition is headed. (Of course, that would mean that one of these sites would go under and/or be bought up by the competition, which is not necessarily a bad thing).

The Proof

Experience has taught me that computer software that appears on paper to be the answer to one's prayers can, in real life, sentence one to temporary madness-so testing is mandatory before drawing conclusions. The problem is these sites require that aforementioned up-front commitment before the payoff starts to happen. You need to create a complete personal profile and you need to get your contacts in place.

With only enough time to do this on one of the two sites, I chose LinkedIn, and here's why: Both sites claim to have approximately the same number of users and they both appeal to businesspersons, but when I searched each site for all of the contacts I wanted to attract to my address book, I found far more on LinkedIn than on Plaxo. Taking a random sample of 30 of my 123 LinkedIn contacts, only 10 of them were also on Plaxo. And when I created a list of tech-savvy advisors to interview for this article, relatively few were using Plaxo, or both Plaxo and LinkedIn, while the rest were solely on LinkedIn.

So, like many business networkers, I started by going onto LinkedIn, locating my two-year-old bare-bones profile, and filling it out as completely as possible. (There are many rudimentary profiles on these sites because people respond to invitations for the first time, sign up, add just enough facts to their profile so they are identifiable, and then let the profiles languish after failing to devote the time needed to explore the site's offerings). Once my LinkedIn profile was complete, I constructed a "public" profile as well, using the link created for me by LinkedIn and adding my name to it: http://www.linkedin.com/in/daviddrucker. (If you Google me, this link comes up pretty high on the resulting list).

I searched out and connected with everyone I could find on LinkedIn who was already in my address book. I used LinkedIn's recommendation feature to provide written endorsements to be displayed on some of my connections' own LinkedIn pages (and some of the folks I recommended returned the favor). I typed company names into LinkedIn's search box to find all the individuals within those companies already on LinkedIn to whom I wanted to send an invitation. And I created a Group called "David Drucker's Media Experts," which LinkedIn approved after several days and to which I'll invite advisors whom I'd like to interview for future stories. In coming days, I will also try out LinkedIn's Answers feature (ask a question and invite an answer from your network-not just from your connections, but all of their connections too), and I'll review each of my contacts' connections to find persons to whom I want an introduction.

And this leads me to share with you the most important lesson I've ever learned about new software: It's best experienced with the same mindset you brought to a new toy as a child. Don't learn the software; play with it. New software systems can be fun when approached with this mindset. The more you play with LinkedIn and Plaxo, the more you'll see each site's possibilities.
Now let's see how advisors are using LinkedIn or Plaxo.

Marketing

Malay Vasavda of Quantum Financial Management in Chicago says he sees potential in business networking sites for the marketing process. "One thing you can do with these sites is highlight your professional history online. If someone tries to find me in Google, my LinkedIn profile is the first thing that comes up. It has my entire professional history, or resume-not just what I've done as an advisor. I can show nonadvisor as well as advisor experience, which is very powerful, as is leaving recommendations for one's contacts."