LinkedIn is a social media networking website, however unlike other such sites, it is used mainly for professional networking. With over 176 million users registered with LinkedIn, it is a huge platform with members from over 200 countries. The website is available in several international languages including Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Polish, Indonesian and others. LinkedIn is a public limited company listed on the bourses at the New York Stock Exchange. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California and has operations worldwide. It has its European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. It has acquired Mspoke, which used to provide next generation personalization solutions. You can promote your Business to Business Marketing Using LinkedIn.
LinkedIn also acquired Rapportive, which was famous for having created a plug-in that draws contact information from other social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook and puts them in Google’s Gmail. This was a master stroke from LinkedIn to tap the vast membership base of the two leading social networking websites. The valuable database is a goldmine for LinkedIn and how best they use it remains to be seen. Additionally, another smaller acquisition is SlideShare which was something like YouTube, only difference is that SlideShare relies on slides to express what YouTube does with videos. LinkedIn believes that the vast professional network will greatly benefit by using SlideShare extensively.
The way LinkedIn functions is by creating a network and let it create an equally big or bigger network through their friends and acquaintances and this network chain progresses to reach astronomical proportions. One contact in a particular field looks for another in a similar field and the link develops into a strong network that exchanges ideas and strategies. Every member is entitled to upload a copy of his or her resume or create their own profile to let others know about their capabilities and experience. This information, in turn is viewed by prospective employers or even would-be business associates.
Employers, who are members, are also allowed to list the openings and look for candidates who fit the bill. Even headhunters and HR consultants, who are members, can list their requirements and hunt for talent. People looking for new openings or change in their career can freely browse through the listings and choose anything that suits their needs. The great thing with this professional networking system is that an opening does not get limited to a few viewers. The same is the case with a person who has uploaded a copy of his resume in response to one particular requirement. In case he does not fulfill the criteria specified by the advertiser, his CV gets passed on to other potential employers through the network till he finally hit pay dirt.Complete details of a person and his antecedents are posted on LinkedIn so that the prospective employer gets a fair idea about the person he is about to hire. Members are encouraged to upload their photos along with the resume. Similarly they are allowed to view the profile of the prospective employers complete with the photo and profile of the person in charge of recruitment. With such flexibility available LinkedIn has created the perfect platform for business to Business Marketing as well.
At LinkedIn, businesses complement each other rather than compete with each other. A sense of mutual trust has already been created and there is a sense of business fraternity that already exists among the members. This trust and exposure bind people from various spheres, backgrounds and diverse business interests. There is a special feature called LinkedIn Answers that an open forum allowing questions to be raised and answers from various quarters. An important aspect to the questions raised or a similarity rather, is that most of the questions raised are business oriented. Several complex business queries are raised in LinkedIn Answers and appropriate answers or solutions are found with ease.
Did you know that at least one executive from all the Fortune 500 companies is a member in LinkedIn? With members signing in every second and the ever increasing member base offers unlimited potential for budding businesses to establish excellent links with other prospective businesses that are on the lookout for good associates. Scammers are quite rare as they will get exposed almost immediately, and once that happens they automatically become social outcasts. Hence LinkedIn is quite a safe platform in spite of having such a large membership base.
One major reason why membership grows so rapidly could be because there are no charges. Anyone can sign up to become a member. However, there is also a paid advertising service that is a great bargain. There are attractive offers almost every month and spending very little you are ensured of a viewership that is quite large. This should do wonders for a medium or small business.
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