Social Networking with LinkedIn

If you want to be business oriented, then the social networking website that you are looking for is LinkedIn. Many people use this site for connecting with their business associates and clients. You can use this social media site for personal as well as organizational development. You can keep up with new trends in your field of business. What is LinkedIn all about? It is a social networking site that is focused purely on business orientation. The main objective of the site is to allow people to network on a professional level. You can use the site for free if you want basic services of registering as a member and linking with other members that you identify. The site will allow you to find business associates and colleagues of yours. Once you link with them, then they can join your network. Once a person gets connected with you, you can then have an access to that person’s list of network connections. This becomes your extended network. A request can be made of introduction to people who are in the extended network through the mutual contact person. You can take LinkedIn training to build up your LinkedIn profile and then you will have the ability to join groups and even look for jobs in the employment section where members generally advertise for open positions. You can start your profile building by creating a profile page. This becomes your personal page. All the members who are registered on this social media site can see your profile page unless you specifically set it as a private page. This page can give details about your education and previous work experience. You can also talk about your past and current work projects. The members can then forward your profile page to their network. The status update on your profile could be used to ask questions or make comments and address them to people in your social network. Using it as a social media strategy, you can give your company or organization more visibility in connection with its brand and products or services. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter have been used as part of a social media strategy to extend career network beyond the geographical location you are confined in. By taking the elementary LinkedIn training, you can do profile building on a professional and not casual basis. You can update your profile regularly on this social network medium. This network could be built systematically by importing contacts from your email addresses. You can also use your LinkedIn profile to join groups that are relevant to your career profile. This could include several professional groups and alumni organizations. While doing social networking with LinkedIn, you have to remember that you do not overuse the network and suffocate your contacts with constant spamming of profile updates and requests. If you use it well, this network could become a goldmine for you and your business. Your success depends on the LinkedIn profile that you create and how it shows on search results. If it does not reflect on the search results, then you are probably losing out on clients and good business opportunities.