Are You Linked In?

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network and is growing rapidly. It operates a social network aimed at business users. LinkedIn has more than 27 million experienced professionals across the globe, representing over 100 industries and information on more than 50,000 companies.

The company was founded by Reid Hoffman and Konstantin Guericke, both Stanford graduates. Linkedin was launched in 2003. Prior to LinkedIn, Reid was Executive Vice President of PayPal.

LinkedIn’s basic account is free, but they also offer premium accounts starting at $60 per year for personal users and $19.95 a month for business accounts. Employers can also post jobs on Linkedin for a fee. Linkedin also sells advertising and Linkedin should reach $100 million in revenue in 2008.

LinkedIn allows individuals to post their profiles and to connect with business acquaintances, co-workers, and friends. You can connect by using Linkedin’s easy to use invitation system. The recipient of the invitation can archive your invitation without connecting with you, accept your invitation to connect or indicate that they don’t know you.

LinkedIn official policy when connecting is that you know the person you are reaching out to, generally someone you have worked with, collaborated with, or attended school with. If you invite connections that state that they don’t know you, LinkedIn penalizes you by requiring that you know the email address of the person you wish to connect with. However, many users are open net-workers who welcome and accept invitations to connect.

I use the following script when sending invitations to connect: “.Hello, my name is Mitch Webb, I am a Open Net-worker & LinkedIn LION. I would like to add you as a connection on LinkedIn. If you decide that you would rather not connect, could you please hit the “archive” button instead of “I don’t know”. That way I don’t get penalized for trying to connect with other professionals like you.”

LinkedIn is a wonderful tool and a very effective way to increase your personal network. It also serves as an terrific medium by which employers and job seekers can review information about one another. Get linked in now by joining LinkedIn.