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These days we are all familiar with social networking - 1.9 million New Zealanders have a Facebook profile and many of us have 'tweeted' or know what it means to do so. These websites however focus more on the social aspect, and less on the networking. For businesses, they primarily serve as a way of connecting with consumers.

The business oriented social networking site

In contrast to Facebook which provides a channel for you to communicate with consumers, if your customers are other businesses (B2B), then LinkedIn is probably a more relevant form of social media to be involved in.

In New Zealand almost 400,000 people have already joined LinkedIn, of which 52% are male, 37% female, and the rest undisclosed. That's a lot of potential contacts and it's growing by the day!

In today's business environment, creating, managing and protecting your online identity is crucial if your market is B2B. Prospective clients are very likely to search online, so how you feature in search results, the quality of your website and increasingly your involvement in social media such as LinkedIn has a huge influence on how you and your company are perceived.

By joining LinkedIn you have more control over what people see when they search the internet. When people 'Google' your name, your LinkedIn profile will rise to the top of search results.

Here are just some of the ways LinkedIn can help your business:

• Getting you introduced to new potential clients
• Lifting your profile amongst your professional peers
• Helping you maintain business contacts and getting introductions to new ones
• Finding new employees/collaborators
• Researching companies and people you may like to do business with
• Getting recommendations for your services
• Demonstrating your expertise in your field 
• Driving people to relevant content on your website

Here's how it works

First you need to register a profile and populate it with information about your services, experience and expertise. Then you can search for your business contacts. If they also happen to be members, you can request to make a Connection and thus become part of each other's networks.

Once you have your networks set up, you can view recommendations for further contacts, which are based on Levels of Separation. First level are the people you are directly connected with; 2nd level are the connections of your connections, and 3rd level are connections of those connections. This is the beauty of LinkedIn; if you come across a profile for someone you'd like to get to know e.g. you think they'd be good for a job you have going, you've heard good things about their work and you want to meet up, or you think they'd benefit from hearing about your business, you can ask for an Introduction. This is where someone in your network introduces you to that contact.

In addition to simply connecting to your network, you can ask people you've worked with to write you a Recommendation. This recommendation will appear as part of your profile and serves as a powerful testimonial for who you are and what you do.