Why Get LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the top social networking website for job seekers. According to Hitwise, it is currently the most visited UK recruitment site.

As Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, explains it, “Post a full profile and get connected to the people you trust. Because if you’re connected to those people and you posted a profile, then when other people are searching for people, they might find you.”

With more than 120 million registered users — and adding two new members every second — the rate at which your network expands on LinkedIn can be truly amazing. A hundred strategic contacts could mean access to millions of people in a short amount of time. You’d have to attend dozens — or hundreds — of in-person networking events to equal the reach you can get on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn allows you to leverage the power of your network — the people you know, and the people those people know — to help you connect to the person (or people) who are in a position to offer you a job.

As the co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, puts it, LinkedIn is about “connecting talent with opportunity on a massive scale.”

Executives from all Fortune 500companies are on LinkedIn. In addition, 59% of people who are active on social networking sites say that LinkedIn is their first choice of platform, according to a June 2011 report from Performics and ROI Research.

However, author Guy Kawasaki puts it best, “I could make the case that Facebook is for show, and LinkedIn is for dough.”