No Comments Written by Robert on August 12, 2008 – 6:49 pm

LinkedIn is a popular business-oriented social networking site that allows you to network with business professionals and build a list of contacts. By building a database of contacts with people you know and trust in business, you have access to a large network of friends with whom you can conduct business, offer jobs, and promote your business.

The people in your LinkedIn contact list are referred to as connections. You can invite anyone, regardless of whether he is a LinkedIn user or not, to become one of your connections.

LinkedIn, located at www.linkedin.com, is a popular business-oriented social networking site that enables you to build a professional network of contacts. The primary purpose of this social network site is to allow you to maintain a list of contact details of people you know and trust in business.

The people in your LinkedIn contact list are referred to as connections. You can invite anyone, regardless of whether or not the person is a LinkedIn user or not, to become one of your connections. Each time you add a new connection to your LinkedIn network you gain access to that person’s connections.

Building a database of contacts using LinkedIn

For example, by adding a new connection, you gain indirect access to that person’s direct connections (your seconddegree connections) and also the connections of your second-degree connections (called third-degree connections). Every time you create new connections, you are, in turn, tapping into a potentially large network of business leads that you can use to help grow your business.

For example, you can use your network of business connections to recruit employees by sending an internal message through LinkedIn outlining your needs to your contacts. In addition, you can use your connections to explore various business opportunities and to attract people to your Web site. The LinkedIn service allows you to quickly build your contact list by searching for LinkedIn members you know from your current and past place of employment or from your past educational institutions.

Moreover, as part of the sign-up process, you have the opportunity to build a profile page that others can see. Your profile page includes basic information about you, as well as more specific information about your present and past educational and business activities.

The basic LinkedIn service is free, but there are limits on the amount of InMail you can send and on how many open introductions you can have at any given time. Open introductions refer to the number of contact requests your contacts can make on your behalf to other LinkedIn members that are neither accepted nor declined. InMail is LinkedIn’s internal e-mail system, and introductions let you contact or be contacted by LinkedIn users in your network through the people you know.

In this way, your connections can introduce you to anyone in your network (or introduce anyone to you) by forwarding messages through a chain of trusted professionals. Although the basic LinkedIn service allows you to build a large professional network of connections, you may want to consider opening one of LinkedIn’s premium accounts, which is a paid service, if you intend to use LinkedIn for larger-scale job recruiting or other purposes.

For example, a LinkedIn Business Plus Account provides 10 InMails per month, premium content access, one-business-day customer service, and 25 introductions open at a time, among other benefits.

Another useful LinkedIn service is called LinkedIn Answers. LinkedIn Answers is a free service that allows you to pose questions to the LinkedIn community to answer.