Much like social media for the business-minded person, LinkedIn has rapidly grown over the last few years to represent the platform of choice for serious networkers the world over. With over 75 million members in over 200 countries, for many small and large businesses alike the question has become not so much "do I need to join?", but more "can I afford not to?".

So why is LinkedIn so popular? What's it all about? Well, for one thing it's free and relatively simple to set up a profile. Of course in this world 'free' doesn't necessarily equate to 'quality', so just how has LinkedIn been able to break the mould? In this two-part article we'll try and find the answer to these questions and more.

What's It All About?
LinkedIn was established in 2003, principally as a social networking site for the global business community. Since then, the site has grown to encompass a user base of 75 million members spanning some 200 countries and is available in the following languages: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

The site basically allows users to build their own business profile, whilst expanding a network of trusted business contacts (or 'connections' as they are known). Of course, in turn each of those contacts has their own pool of contacts and so the network expands exponentially. Figures indicate that a new member joins approximately each second, so it's not difficult to see the far reaching potential of the LinkedIn community.

Connections can then be used in various ways, but principally to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by a connection from within one's own network. Of course this also extends to second and third-party connections (friend of a friend, friend of a friend of a friend and so on!). It's basically one giant, global 24hr networking event.

LinkedIn or Facebook?
How does LinkedIn compare with other social media platforms such as Facebook? The first and most obvious difference between LinkedIn and Facebook (which we'll use here to illustrate the point) is their principal purpose – LinkedIn has been designed with business and professional interaction in mind, whilst Facebook is aimed at social, light-hearted fun. Of course as the social media marketing phenomenon has gathered momentum, the lines have inevitably become a little blurred.

Over the last few years both Facebook and its users have demonstrated a remarkable amount of adaptability and innovation when it comes to business and marketing – principally through the ability to create a profile (or page) for your business, promote and then market it through a variety of channels. Other users have the option of joining the page by becoming 'fans', and administrators then have free reign to update content and posts as desired. Updated content is automatically fed through to fan pages via the content feed.

It's a tremendously dynamic marketing and networking tool. By comparison LinkedIn has remained relatively static. This said, however, when making a comparison one has to bear in mind the intended audience. Facebook business is ideally suited to small, dynamic SME's who wish to get their name out there – however LinkedIn caters far better to the more established professional wishing to interact purely on a professional basis.

What Does The Future Hold?
At this stage, integration between the two platforms seems unlikely. It is highly doubtful Facebook will ever present a viable threat to LinkedIn – a limit of 4000 'connections' ultimately prevents it from being a suitable business networking solution for serious networkers and professionals. And of course the same applies in reverse. Indeed many users currently have opted for a profile on each platform, and for very different purposes. Ultimately it seems that it is this inherent difference that will prevent their paths from crossing.

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