LinkedIn is a very well established and respected social network with over 259 million users in more than 200 countries. It’s known as “Facebook in a Suit” or the most professional level of Social networking for businesses.

LinkedIn is a very valuable tool to find the key decision makers within certain companies. It’s used for finding the best point of contact, gaining familiarity with their background before a call or sales pitch, making such contact much more effective.

It’s a social network for professional people. Normally a person would create a LinkedIn profile that would include career details and would update their information periodically as to their current appointment. It would often include a personal statement, personal web address and possibly testimonials from employers and members of staff. If the person has particular interests both professionally and personally they may subscribe to one or more interest groups to receive updates and discussion opportunities.