Thursday, June 2, 2011

LinkedIn

Have you been asked “to join my professional network” recently? If you have, you must be a registered LinkedIn network user. At Berkeley College - our alumni, associates, faculty and students are actively participating in the LinkedIn network looking for internships, job opportunities, corporate partnerships, and overall opportunities to connect with individuals. The popularity of the site is growing.

When LinkedIn blasted on to the stock market on May 19, the shock waves resounded around the world and across cyberspace.

After issuing its Initial Public Offering (IPO) at $45 a share, stock in LinkedIn (trading as LNKD) catapulted to the top of the market, ending its first day as a publicly traded company at $94 per share.

In the space of a single day, the value of LinkedIn more than doubled, skyrocketing from $4.3 billion to $8.9 billion -- pretty good for a company that was born not in a board room but in the living room of company co-founder and former Yahoo executive Reid Hoffman, in 2002.

Today, new members join LinkedIn at the rate of more than one per second, and the social networking site for professionals now has 100 million members worldwide, including CEO's of Fortune 500 companies, recent college graduates, entrepreneurs, mid-career professionals, human resources managers and executive "headhunters."

What makes LinkedIn so attractive?

Unlike Facebook, where the emphasis is more on the social aspect of social networking, the emphasis is on networking at LinkedIn. You don’t make “friends,” but you may just find the job of your dreams or make a critical connection.


That doesn't mean you can't find friends on LinkedIn or enjoy the lighter moments that we all need in our working lives. The power of LinkedIn lies in its ability to help its users build or enhance their professional identities by taking the old-fashioned business of networking from horse and carriage to warp speed.

LinkedIn users have access to a worldwide pool of employers, career candidates, business colleagues and professional resources that simply exists in no other place.

As a member of the Berkeley College community, please let us know your experience with LinkedIn so that others can learn the benefits of utilizing this social network. Please add your comments in the space below.