You have received several invitations from LinkedIn to sign up and connect with your friends but you are already signed up with a bunch of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Hi5, Bebo and Friendster. Do you need to accept this invitation and signup with yet another network? Yes !!
Facebook, MySpace, Orkut and others may be the most favourite online social networks, but there is something missing in all of them. While these social networks help you to connect with old friends and family members, share photos and write on their funwalls or scrapbooks, they ignore the professional & business aspect of life. In these social networks, your business or profession life is restricted to one corner of your “profile” and is optional to fill in. This is where business networks like LinkedIn and Plaxo fill in.
LinkedIn is all about building your professional profile. It’s all about making the right business and professional connections. LinkedIn can help you to find your dream job, maintain relationships not only with former colleagues but also bosses (if you wish) and find answers to your professional queries from peers. You also get notified instantly whenever a friend in your network changes jobs.
But the most important application of Linkedin is that it helps you make connections that would otherwise be impossible. You may be wanting to approach large name brand companies about business development or for a job and LinkedIn can help you find a connection in that company. Simply calling or emailing from the outside would be futile. Connecting through a contact in the company would be much more useful. If not for LinkedIn you would never know that this particular contact was in that particular company.
LinkedIn still has its problems in its search technology and your search horizons expand only when the number of contacts in your network grow. But don’t let these minor niggles stop you from using it.
The LinkedIn business network truly complements your social networks such as Facebook & Orkut. Use it simultaneously alongwith your favourite social network and make your business or profession grow.
