The Internet Strategist.
"I've been trying to find a way to use Facebook in a more professional manner and I've found it – it's called LinkedIn." Inevitably many users have an "aha" moment when, after spending a quiet afternoon digging a little deeper they stumble upon some feature of LinkedIn that they find immensely valuable. At that moment they become converts, thirsty for knowledge about how to do more. This is what happened to my friend of the quote above. But many businesses never get there. LinkedIn is a far less frenetic tool than most of the other social networking sites. As noted by blogger Sam DeReign "On LinkedIn, I am able to share the things I am most proud of – accomplishments that show what a capable person I am in the workplace. My contacts on LinkedIn aren't going to tag a photo of me attempting to do the Cha-Cha Slide after a bottle of wine." Thanks to LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman for hipping everyone to this simple but spot on blog post. It is LinkedIn's subtlety which makes it powerful.
Comment -- This post illustrates the value of social media diversification. LinkedIn is indeed powerful, but for good or bad it doesn't do everything that Facebook does -- nor does it necessarily reach all of the audiences you are trying to hit in your marketing/PR efforts. At SBAM, I try to cover all the social networking bases. We have a presence on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. And if you check out the social sharing bar at the bottom of the news/articles on our Web site, you'll see that we provide the ability to interact with many niche social networking services, too. Michael Rogers
