Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter leave many companies worried about wasted time and loss of productivity. Is there a social media web site that has strong utility for business people? In a word – yes – and that web site is LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com). I prefer to call LinkedIn “Facebook for Business”.
Your LinkedIn profile revolves around information that is usually contained in your resume. Once that is set up, you can start building your network of friends (I.e. connections in the LinkedIn world). The web of your connections (out to three layers deep) can get large very quickly. Typically, about 125 people that you directly know can build a web of over 1 million connections.
Although LinkedIn only has about 75 million users (vs. 500 million for Facebook), the LinkedIn users are almost exclusively an older demographic that is business-related. As a result, the connections you make are more useful to your career or business and in your job.
