200 countries 70 million members, LinkedIn is one of the largest business networking sites professionals use worldwide. Unlike other social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, LinkedIn is specifically for building and maintaining.
So instead of last night’s party photos uploaded for family, friends and acquaintances to view and chat about. As a LinkedIn users you can upload details about your work experience and education in order to create a professional looking profile.
Features
As the name suggests, to join LinkedIn, is becoming part of a massive network of working professionals. When you register, you are invited to add your list of email addresses that you can search contacts that we know already on LinkedIn. You can also skip this step and just search for, and manually add people to the site. You can only add someone as a contact if you know and trust them, or have a friend who does - ensuring that every link in the network is authentic. Thus, anyone can develop and maintain business relationships, efficiently expanding their professional network through their existing contacts with confidence.
There is also space for specific groups on LinkedIn. Although the companies may have their own profile pages, the same groups of people with similar interests and experience can participate. Here, business ideas are interchangeable tips can be shared, and projects can be worked.
Clearly, LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for your business career. So the most important thing is to make sure you have an impressive profile. This is to ensure that you have filled in as much detail as possible, and have uploaded a professional photo of yourself.
If you have a colleague or business partner they would be happy to write a reference for you. All you have to do is ask. If this is the case, you are asked to write reference, please write a short paragraph detailing why this is a good person to work with - this is essentially a way to bear witness to each other in the LinkedIn network.
By the way, if someone writes a reference that you are not happy with it, you may decide not to show it in your profile.
Not only can you impress people in a LinkedIn community, but by having a profile on LinkedIn means that you can maintain control over what the search results that appear about you. It may be useful to have a ready-made summary of information about you on top of the list of Google search results when prospective employers or business partners want to know about you.
LinkedIn provides users with many opportunities to improve relations, but at the same time, it is still very focused and streamlined. For example, while it is possible to find small pockets of "fun things" on the website, LinkedIn's professional image means no silly games or applications that you would find on Facebook.
Limitations
Possible disadvantage is that not everything is free with LinkedIn - to view the profiles of some people, you have to upgrade your membership. The more you upgrade your membership, the more results you can see and the wider access you get.
Conclusion
LinkedIn certainly covers a niche in the field of social networks. Plays a very different role compared to a site like Facebook, the social can upload photos and have fun, casual conversations with friends. In LinkedIn, you can maintain your professional image on the web. The site offers you the opportunity to network with other professionals in their field, to exchange ideas and establish contacts.