I love LinkedIn! I too wish the groups had more participation as there is so much potential there to connect with people that you never would have had the opportunity to otherwise. The more active you are the more you get out of it. I know I have participated in a couple of discussions in the industry groups that I have been involved in (disaster restoration) and it seems like every time I commented on something 2 or 3 people would ask to link in with me.

Here's a cool thing you may or may not know. On your home page, if you scroll down the right you will see a box that says "Who's viewed my Profile". How cool is that! Now if you do not have a paid subscription they will not tell you exactly who, their search just pulls that person and other people that come up in that same search. The info it gives you is like "Project Manger in the Construction industry in Baton Rouge LA". You can usually figure out who was looking.

And here's a way to use it to your advantage... A lot of people have the paid subscription and they are shown exactly who looked at their profile. So the kind of back end way to get someone to notice you is to look at their profile. Coz they always look back.

Kathy