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There are not many social networks that are ideal for business usage and even more that lack a strong user base. What makes Linkedin a unique social network for businesses is the fact that it allows organizations and individuals to connect and communicate with thousands of profesionals in a B2B and potentially B2C social networking environment. Linkedin has several features that set it apart from other business-friendly social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
One of the main popularities of Linkedin is the ability for professionals and students to form connnections with users who might work at a company with a potential to become a prospective client or client connection. Once connected, that user's connections in turn become your second or third degree connections which in turn expand your network to people who "know someone who knows someone."
Linkedin uses the interesting principle that everyone knows at least someone who might be someone you would want to connect with at some point. The different degrees in which users are connected further expands the network, creating business and job opportunities that might not previously have been noticable or even possible.
In addition to connections and business opportunities, Linkedin offers official groups from organizations ranging from business professionals and schools to casual gamer and meetup groups. Groups, individuals, and businesses are able to create free group pages and discussion forums that allow users to stay connected on topics related to their business industry or personal interests. A great extension of these opportunities and connections are the events advertised on Linkedin that allow users to post and view events offered by other users, groups, or companies. The targeted advertising is also a popular feature of Linkedin.
Connecting through Linkedin events is one way that businesses can either advertise their services or create a networking opportunity B2B or B2C. One of the more interesting tools that Linkedin offers is the custom targeting for features that include events, polls, and advertisements.
Linkedin members are able to create events or ad campaigns that allow them to target any number of leads based on industry, company size, job title, job function, and much more.
Linkedin's targeted advertising presents an excellent opportunity to reach more qualified people for recruiting, business services, gaining statistics from polls, and other business needs. The advertising works about the same way as search engine advertising, since you pay by clicks and impressions (minimum of $50 in advertising required).
What makes the Linkedin targeted advertising unique is that marketers can target leads broken down to specifics that are not even available on other social networking locations or even on AdWords.
Perhaps one of the less talked-about but somewhat interesting features of Linkedin are the applications that users can activate and install on their profile, such as travel, reading, and Wordpress blog posts. The travel application can in particular be of some use to frequent-flier professionals who want to keep friends, collegues, and potential clients in-the-know of their travel whereabouts (or proximity).
While some of the applications can be useful for professionals, there is also the interesting marketing schemes of the Linkedin software itself. Linkedin has created some clever ways to encourage users to not only provide complete profile information, but also to sign up for extended services. If a user is missing a section such as the summary or lacking plus items such as a recommendation, Linkedin creates status bar showing that your profile is not yet complete, encouraging you to provide more details about yourself (thus increasing the value of your profile page).
The extended services that Linkedin offers include tantalizing ones that target the user's curiousity. The section showing who has viewed your profile serves clues about who has been viewing it within the past few days. In order to view more information about the users or more of the users that have been viewing your profile, users need to purchase the business level account, which can be tempting for businesses in general.
Check out the section below on "Adding Privacy to Linkedin" if you do not want your details to appear for the people whose profiles you view there is a setting on Linkedin to opt out (though not much detail is given out, only job function, industry, and location).
Keeping info private from the "Who’s Viewed My Profile" section
- Step 1: On your Linkedin profile, login and at the top right click "Account & Settings" (you will likely be prompted to login again for verification).
- Step 2: Under Privacy Settings, click Profile Views (you will likely be prompted to login yet again for verification).
- Step 3: Click the bubble next to "Don’t show users that I’ve viewed their profile" and then click Save Changes.
Protecting Your Connections' Privacy: Conceal your connections list from your other connections (although if one of your connections happens to find the profile of a person whom is a connection to you, it will still show on that connection's profile that they are connected to you and by what degree if it is a 2nd or 3rd degree connection).
- Step 1: On your Linkedin profile, login and at the top right click "Account & Settings" (you will likely be prompted to login again for verification).
- Step 2: Under Privacy Settings, click Connections Browse (you will likely be prompted to login yet again for verification).
- Step 3: Click the bubble next to "No, hide my connections list" and then click Save Changes.
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