LinkedIn by Vivian Ghobar

Searching for a business social network? In today’s world, where the meaning of time is precious, more people are looking for qualified social networks, rather than quantity. As a professional you might recognize names such as ryze.com, academy.com, xing.com if not, LinkedIn must ring a bell; considered the most popular social network for professional networking by far. (Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003 with more than 60 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide .)


For many people LinkedIn has proved to be a valuable tool, and in today’s business world it’s all about who knows who. The benefits LinkedIn offers to E – Business are limitless. For example, once you have an account in LinkedIn, you can manage your professional information, and build a credible list of contacts that you trust in business, and who might help in a variety of ways. These are the so called first connections, these connections have a list of contacts that become your second degree connections and so forth. LinkedIn changed the way recruitment is viewed, it allowed companies to search for, and find qualified people for certain position. Companies also distribute job listing that allows job seekers to find new positions that may not be advertised on traditional job boards. In the marketing world it is relevant to find business opportunities in order to have a competitive advantage and most importantly, to sustain a competitive advantage. (LinkedIn also gives firms extra marketing clout, allowing them to promote their products or services, as well as direct other LinkedIn users to specific representatives for questions concerning topics like sales and technical support .) Weather it is to find potential clients, potential partners, or service providers anyone can have access to the site. (If, for example, you have a business taxi service and want to target stockbrokers, you simply tap in the name of the top stockbrokers in your region and LinkedIn produces a list of all the key employees to contact .) Business Social Networks are being warned against scams, and LinkedIn is no special case when it comes to the controversy of the so called “419 Scams”, (A user named Natasha Kone claims to be a 22-year-old woman from the Ivory Coast. Her message goes through the usual scam-artist routine of describing the $6.5 million inheritance left to her by a deceased father, and why she's looking for a foreign partner to help secure the money .) Even if Natasha Kone was removed from LinkedIn, members must understand that it’s their responsibility to share their personal information. With incidents like this it is visible to understand the degree of harm that anyone can encounter in any social network website. The most important thing to know for sure, is who are the members you’re connecting with, for this reason LinkedIn emphasizes on adding people you know well, and who know you.

It’s my eagerness to learn, that drove me to open an account in LinkedIn, and it’s the first business social network that I register to. Soon I will graduate from Bethlehem University, and I believe LinkedIn will help shape my career for the best.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn (2/3/2010 )
2. http://yorkshire.businessitguide.com/insights/2009/04/28/LinkedIn_a_valuable_ebusiness_resource/ (2/3/2010)
3. http://features.techworld.com/security/4127/linkedin-users-warned-over-419-scam/ (2/3/2010 )