A Look Into Social Media: LinkedIn August 10, 2009

In this post I continue writing my brief thoughts on social media as I did in the sections about Twitter & Facebook. LinkedIn is Facebook but for business users. The idea of LinkedIn is to connect with other local business owners similar to how to Chamber of Commerce works with expanding your network/contacts.

LinkedIn has all the tools that Facebook has: your messages, status updates, you must approve someone before they can be on your contact list, groups and more.

What LinkedIn has that Facebook doesn't is your work history which allows you to list all the jobs you have had on your profile page. LinkedIn also allows you to put down what you wish to get out of LinkedIn whether is be a new job, ventures, business deals, consulting offers, and more.

LinkedIn also allows you to recommend others based on past work you may have had with them. It also allows you to give a summary as to what you are currently involved in.

As with Facebook, LinkedIn also has their own applications which allows you to connect to other users in new and different ways.

I am a firm believer that all business professionals should be on LinkedIn as it can be a very powerful tool with connecting with other users if used properly.

I also encourage people to join the different groups available on LinkedIn to help expand their networks/contacts as well as being involved.