Social networking website - LinkedIn

Recently with all the hype ongoing about social networking, contrary to most of the social networking websites like facebook, friendster etc; I personally find that LinkedIn has a lot more useful properties, which explains why LinkedIn has been popular in US and European countries. LinkedIn has more than 60 million users worldwide, of which approximately half are in the United States. 11 million are from Europe. With 3 million users, India is the fastest-growing country as of 2009. The Netherlands has the highest adoption rate per capita at 30%. Enough about the numbers, let's put the 'fun part' aside and examine the features and benefits of LinkedIn here.


LinkedIn (pronounced linked-in) is a business-oriented social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. As of 11 February 2010 (2010 -02-11)^[update], LinkedIn had more than 60 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.

Features The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection.
This list of connections can then be used in a number of ways:

• A contact network is built up consisting of their direct connections, the connections of each of their connections (termed second-degree connections) and also the connections of second-degree connections (termed third-degree connections). This can be used to gain an introduction to someone a person wishes to know through a mutual, trusted contact.
• It can then be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in one's contact network.
• Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates.
• Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their existing contacts can introduce them.

The "gated-access approach" (where contact with any professional requires either a preexisting relationship, or the intervention of a contact of theirs) is intended to build trust among the service's users. LinkedIn participates in EU's International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles^.
LinkedIn also allows users to research companies with which they may be interested in working. When typing the name of a given company in the search box, statistics about the company are provided. These may include the ratio of female to male employees, the percentage of the most common titles/positions held within the company, the location of the company's headquarters and offices, or a list of present, past, and former employees.

True enough, LinkedIn is a fruitful place to be spotted by headhunters as users are able to tag specific industrial experience to their profile, thus enabling the linkages to expand & multiply. Furthermore, enlisting themselves into groups and posting discussion topics will increase visibility and professionalism.

Last but not least, connections are able to post recommendations of the particular user's work, this recognizes the person's contribution and increases credibility. I have 2 at the moment :)

For those who's interested in adding me on LinkedIn, here's my profile:- http://my.linkedin.com/in/hazelhor