Londyn's Blog: LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional. This social networking site came into existence in 2002 in the living room of Reid Hoffman, the co-founder. It was officially launched on May 5, 2003. It builds one’s professional identity online and allows one to stay in touch with colleagues and classmates. LinkedIn allows for the discovery of professional opportunities, business deals, and new ventures. On LinkedIn, one is able to get the latest news, inspiration, and insights that one may need to excel in what they do.

LinkedIn can be used in business. LinkedIn’s main purpose is to connect the world’s professionals, and allows access to people, jobs, news, updates, and insights. This is positive because it allows professionals to become more productive and successful and help them excel in what they do. The search feature, much like Google’s search feature, allows other to find certain businesses. LinkedIn gives businesses exposure to the people that are searching for products or services. LinkedIn allows for connections between people and businesses that may not be able to be reached by any other way. This increases the exposure of a business, which is a positive aspect of this network. LinkedIn allows businesses to post regular status updates, join in on active group participation, send messages and invitations to those in one’s network and to other group members, and answer questions. This can be both positive and negative. Posting regular status updates can interest a business’s target customers and clients. Active group participation and sending messages to those in one’s network to other group members can tarnish the reputation of a business. It is easy to spam people, and that could toss businesses out of certain groups and annoy customers.

LinkedIn can be used for entertainment and news. One way to successfully break into the entertainment industry is by connecting and communicating on LinkedIn. LinkedIn can find the right professionals, executives and experts in your category of the entertainment business. Those who want to be musicians can connect with other musicians and record label executives through LinkedIn. Those who want to be actors or actresses can connect and communicate with other actors or actresses through LinkedIn. This can be both positive and negative. On the positive side, one has the opportunity to expose themselves to find jobs in the areas they want to work in. On the negative side, this may not always work. LinkedIn can build a reputation, but also tarnish it. One is able to search entertainment in the search box. This exposes different entertain companies to different people. This is positive for the companies because this allows them to expose more and new people to their entertainment business. LinkedIn can also be used for news. LinkedIn allows people to get the latest news. It has a feature called “LinkedIn News,” which provides one with the most important articles about their company, competitors, and industry. The news module collects news about companies that one has listed on their profile. On the positive side, a company can keep track of their industry and competitors. On the negative side, competitors can do the same.

LinkedIn can be used socially. Although LinkedIn is a social networking site, like Twitter or Facebook, it is not used recreationally. A person who uses LinkedIn most likely will use it for business, not for fun. LinkedIn is a social networking site that has features that can be both positive and negative. LinkedIn connects and allows communication between over 225 million members in over 200 countries around the world. On the positive side, socializing beyond the one’s limited area helps build a powerful community. It adds a great diversity to a person’s colleagues and friends by branching out and communicating with new people not only across the country, but globally too. Another positive aspect LinkedIn has socially is it gives people with similar interests the chance to meet others who they may never have had the chance to meet. On the negative side, LinkedIn can tarnish the reputation of an individual. This may decrease or completely stop people from connecting with that individual. Also, when posting status updates and actively participating in group chats, one may begin to spam others. This can annoy people, which decreases or stops communication. LinkedIn is also another social networking site that may decrease face to face interaction and communication.

LinkedIn is a large part of communication and connection in today’s society. It can be used positively and negatively in all aspects of society, including business, social, entertainment, news, and recreational.