LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the world's largest professional online network. It was founded in 2002 and launched in 2003 and currently has an estimated 50,000,000 unique monthly users. Unlike many of the other social networking sites like Facebook that focuses on connecting with friends, LinkedIn was established specifically for connecting with professional contacts.

Like the other social networking sites, joining LinkedIn is free. Upon setting up an account, you create your profile. What is great about LinkedIn is that when you create your profile, is that you are able to upload information regarding past employment - sort of like a resume. If you own multiple websites, you are able to list them all so that people who view your profile are able to see your various business interests.

Some the uses for LinkedIn include:

• Finding employment opportunities
• Finding qualified applicants for positions you need to fill
• Sharing knowledge and ideas
• Finding business opportunities

When you sign up, you can join groups or start your own group. The owner of the group will view your profile to see if they approve your membership (if you are not instantly accepted) and generally you are approved. You'll probably want to join groups that are associated with the type of business you have. This is helpful because you are able to ask questions or offer suggestions by participating in the discussions about various topics. It is also a great way to stay on top of what is going on in your industry. I love LinkedIn mainly for this reason.

LinkedIn has a website where you can learn all about this social medium and a webinar that you can attend to to learn how to best maximum this great marketing tool. The link is http://learn.linkedin.com/training/. The webinars are conducted every Tuesday and Wednesdays at 1:00 pm CST.

Good luck and feel free to share with us how you currently use LinkedIn or plan to use it to promote your small business.