Overview
LinkedIn is a large networking site that connects professionals from all over the world in one click. Linked-In was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman. It launched on May 2003 [1]. Since then, it has been growing in membership from many different countries and users all over the world. It is currently available in twenty languages: English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog and Turkish [2] . This enables users to connect with each other in a variety of ways without a huge language barrier in navigation of the site. This platform also allows for its users to join professional groups or share valuable business information with other members as a feature. Users have the ability to upload a résumé, current working position, or current educational occupation.
Linked-In serves as a networking site which helps to connect people from different professional occupations and backgrounds. Basic membership is free. It builds a community of the business world where members can share and promote as well. The goal of the site is to allow registered members to establish and document networks of people they know and trust professionally [3]. Since its launch, LinkedIn has been picking up its name around the globe. Individuals and companies alike can use LinkedIn to retain various employee and alumni contacts. Even if a person retires or moves away to another career, they will still have contact with the people they have worked with. This enables for a smaller community to build. There are people who are known to each other and then there are people who connect that are strangers but still have some sort of contact.
Contacts have a job title below their names of the people that helps to confirm the identity of a person at a workplace. Listings such as high school and college are also included within the information section on the profile that is created. One feature that makes LinkedIn an appealing place for the younger generation like graduates who would like to connect with professionals on jobs and advice is the messaging. There can be conversations that are held as well as job opportunity listings. Profile views are also shown so users can see who views their profile and when it was viewed. This allows for members to know who viewed their profile and if they would like to, they would have the ability to connect. Located on a profile would also be past and current job(s) that a user is involved in. Skills is another feature as well and people who can attest (or would like to attest) to the skills that a user may have can endorse that person.
Similarly, employers are now currently using LinkedIn as a site for recruiting future employees as well. It serves as an all-in-one social media for users [4]. High school students are also getting involved in the networking area of social media. An increasing amount of young adults are being attracted to LinkedIn as a site to get connected in a way that puts them ahead in their young professional life. This builds an online community of adult and young adults. Like Facebook, posts can be made to start conversations and liked. Updates and professional conversations are encouraged by the site.
