Separated by 6 degrees? Make it 3 with Linked In. If you haven’t heard of it before, Linked In is an established and extremely credible social networking site primarily for business professionals, regardless of whether you are employed somewhere or are an entrepreneur. The concept behind Linked In is that probably everybody you will ever need or want to speak to or connect with is probably separated from you by 2 levels of people within your network. Think about it this way, you probably always talk to people about common people you know even though there are few times that you would probably ever meet them unless it was a social gathering or some sort. So Linked In puts everyone in a visual format and they show who is connected to you and by which friend or friends they are connecting.
What is Linked In?
What are the benefits of using Linked In? Well there are a number of reasons, but I’ll share these for starters:
1. You can do business AND support others in your network at the same time.
2. You may never have to make a cold call ever again…if you want to connect with someone/a company then simply type in their name in the search box and look who in your network knows that person and can make the warm intro for you. Obviously the more people in your network, the better! But even with 50 quality of people you will be surprised by how many people they know that you want to know.
3. It’s great place to get recommendations/testimonials….see this great article & resource posted today by Social Media Guru Chris Brogan (who inspired this post btw 
): Tips for writing a good Linked In Recommendation
4. Get Free Consulting….sort of 
Use the questions to feature to ask questions to your peers that you have no idea where to begin looking for the answer or if you have a problem that is difficult to solve and you need help figuring out answers.
5. Establish yourself as an expert. As you well know, it’s important to give as much as you receive so be a resource, share ideas and answer questions to establish your own brand and credibility as well.
