What would happen if your LinkedIn account was suspended?

If you follow me on twitter, you will have realised that I have recently had my LinkedIn account suspended. (Not fun, I can assure you)

Now, someone I was connected too had had their LinkedIn account compromised… or in plain simple language, hacked. At least four of my close circle of friends on LinkedIn also found themselves with a suspended account, just because we were linked to this person. And one of these four was a headhunter…

Now having my LinkedIn account suspended, was embarrassing and a little inconvenient for me – but for my friend, it was a disaster. However, if I had been training on LinkedIn during those three days when my account was suspended, it would have been more than a mild inconvenience… If however, it had been my twitter account which had been suspended I would have been in real problems, as I rely on Twitter as my key communication channel with my vast network.

Which got me thinking. What external systems, processes or events does your networking strategy use and rely on? Do you have an alternative?

Now three years ago, I wouldn’t have been that bothered if my LinkedIn account had been suspended. But, times change, and our reliance on different systems, events and groups changes. When did you do any contingency planning with your networking strategy?

It’s not something I had thought about doing until my LinkedIn account was suspended.

The key here is to diversify your networking and have different eggs in different baskets.