We all know about social networks like Facebook, Twitter, & MySpace, but it’s evident these are not business-focused. Sure you can use them to network with people to a point, and you can definitely advertise your business on them, but… what if you don’t know who to look for? What if you want to create a digital resume that is searchable?

You can’t do that.

Or can you? LinkedIn is a professional social network on which you can create a profile, update it with job, education, and skill information, and potential employers and employees can find you with a quick easy search! If you don’t have one already, I suggest you jump on it!

, a similar company to LinkedIn, is expanding like crazy. Its growth rate is much higher than LinkedIn’s was in its initial stages. BranchOut’s early success is in large part due to its use of Facebook’s platform. Facebook users can add BranchOut’s app to their account and then use the app to contact Facebook members that are employed by companies of interest.

While LinkedIn is positioned as a more professional network, BranchOut targets a wider range of audiences, especially recent college graduates. While the two companies are competitors, for users, they are very complementary. Initially, you might use BranchOut to connect with various contacts. After networking with various contacts, you might want to share your résumé. For this, you would want to use LinkedIn.

Source: “LinkedIn: BranchOut Enhances LinkedIn’s Prospects”

Facebook may be the largest social media platform in the world, but LinkedIn may be the most valuable. LinkedIn is considered to be the “professional” version of Facebook. Users create profiles, but these profiles have more of an emphasis on personal achievement and skill sets. LinkedIn provides a way for people to make personal business connections and apply for jobs. It is the world’s best way to network online. Professionals can make personal recommendations and apply for jobs using connections on the site. It allows users to share their personal expertise with the world. This can be a huge help to college students who are looking to find a job out of college.

A social media source that I recommend for any business is LinkedIn. My suggestion stems from when one is looking for a constructive social media site that is professional LinkedIn is the place to go. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, which are seen as more juvenile, LinkedIn is a very driven platform with the sole purpose of connected professionals. Getting an individual or business account on the site instantly connects you will other professionals in your same industry, allowing for easy idea exchange, and post and fill job opportunities.  Since LinkedIn is formed around the connection of professionals, this is the perfect fit for a final social media connection for your business, regardless of your mission.

A social network for business professionals. Although this sounds like a good idea, I have yet to hear any LinkedIn success stories. For me the whole idea of making friends to get hired seemed a bit utilitarian. Also, the interface seemed a bit complicated and unnecessarily unattractive. Therefore, I never did more with LinkedIn than create a profile and send a few friend requests to people that I could have just called on the phone in the first place. I may be missing out on some great career opportunities by not actively using LinkedIn, but to me, those missed opportunities just aren’t worth the cost.

I spent this past summer developing LinkedIn profile pages for an industrial engineering company in Michigan named The Productivity Team. They were seeking a way to expand their social media presence. Realizing that their clients are large businesses and not individual American’s they stayed away from Facebook and twitter and instead pursued a presence on LinkedIn. The business minded structure of LinkedIn enables them to reach executives of large companies through a professional medium.  I built profiles for the President and Vice-President of The Productivity Team. These profiles were designed to stress their own experience and the quality of the company they owned. With these profiles they could connect with executives at other companies and attempt to acquire projects.

In addition I developed a LinkedIn company page that described The Productivity Team. This would be a second place on LinkedIn where I potential customer could discover valuable information about the company.

The third type of page that I developed was based around specific lean manufacturing training that The Productivity Team provides. They are one of the nations largest providers of MODAPTS training. I created a page specifically for MODAPTS training so that anyone on LinkedIn interested in that topic would find our  page and be directed towards our company as a top provider of that training. Within a month, The Productivity Team had obtained a training contract with one of the nations largest truck manufacturers.