Ask an Expert: Professionals tune in to their kind of network

— -- Q: Steve, I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. I read the Small Business Bible book that you wrote. In fact I had recommended it to the public library here. When would be a good time to have a short conversation? — Roshan

A: Are you LinkedIn? I'm LinkedIn! Let's LinkIn! We're all LinkedIn!

While, like you maybe, I have heard of the website LinkedIn, for some reason it seems to have reached a tipping point with me recently: Three different people in the last few weeks have requested that I become part of their LinkedIn network, and yet I had not even met two of them, and even more interestingly, until last week, I had not even been on the site.

So it seemed fortuitous when some PR folks at LinkedIn contacted me last week to let me know about a Question and Answer session Senator Barak Obama was having with the LinkedIn small business community, which numbers 1.4 million. "Would you like to know more?" Indeed I would, about the Obama discussion specifically, and LinkedIn generally.

What is LinkedIn, you ask? While one of the distinguishing characteristics of Web 2.0 is the advent of social networking sites like MySpace, you and I know that the demographic cut of the MySpace and Facebook crowd is younger than we are, generally speaking. Enter LinkedIn. It is a networking site for professionals, businesses and entrepreneurs.

According to Kay Luo, Director of Corporate Communications for LinkedIn, "LinkedIn is an online network of more than 14 million professionals. It is a way to brand yourself, connect with your network, expand your network, build new business, and maintain and build relationships." Whereas a site like MySpace allows Gen X and Y to hang out online, as Ms. Luo explained to me, "With professionals, time is of the essence, so we try and help people be more effective and efficient."

It does so by helping you create a vast network.

When you join LinkedIn, you create a profile that summarizes your business accomplishments. You then use that profile to locate colleagues, clients, associates, and friends. These folks become part of your LinkedIn network. But the best part is that because your people have their own network, your network expands geometrically to include your connections' connections, linking you to thousands of qualified professionals.