There is little doubt as to the social revolution that has taken place in recent years. In some form or another 'networking' has become all pervasive, with the lure of delivering anything and anybody from a new business contract to a new mate. Long term players in the market, such as business clubs (like BNI) and dating agencies have been joined by a vast array of new on-line services. Competition is said to be good for the consumer, however it can also dilute and market and confuse otherwise willing participants. Let's divide the market immediately by sticking to business oriented associations and networks - dating agencies and the like aren't material for the PSJ's "Business Booster". 

When it comes to business networking, a straw poll among my colleagues and friends revealed that the vast majority believed the following:

• Networking (of one form or another) is a significant source of revenue for them.
• It's better to actively participate in a few carefully chosen networks, than spread oneself thinly across many.
• Professional bodies (associations) and chambers of commerce provide good off-line networking opportunities.
• Good on-line networking opportunities are provided by LinkedIn and ecademy, with Twitter providing an interesting and fast moving, although less structured environment.

Against this backdrop, I'm going to dedicate the rest of this Business Booster to getting to grips with LinkedIn, where you'll find three types of user:

1. Been a member for a long time - not really done much with it - bare bones profile

2. Active user - strong profile - good linkages - actively recommends and is recommended by other users

3. (Heard of LinkedIn, but doesn't have a profile - so not really a user)

If you're in the third group, do yourself a favour and register with LinkedIn the moment you've finished reading this Business Booster. LinkedIn has moved forward in leaps and bounds recently with the addition of some new functionality that really makes it a first class business tool. As luck would have it, I've been lucky enough to obtain an advance copy of an excellent new book dedicated to the subject and called:

How to REALLY use LinkedIn

Written by Jan Vermeiren, it's published by BookSurge, with an ISBN of 978-1439229637.

This is an excellent reference book in many ways, so I'll restrict myself to briefly mentioning some of its most appealing facets:

• Although this book is clearly focused on helping people get the most out of LinkedIn, it nonetheless starts with an outstanding review of networking in general, which acts as a really good refresher
• The "Users Guide" part of the book takes people through a sensible, logical review of the functionality of LinkedIn
• The two areas of 'networking in general' and the LinkedIn application specifically are then brought together with clear explanations of how to get yourself an effective basic profile and then how to build on this with some really advanced techniques
• The book is far from theoretical - it's clear that Vermeiren really knows his stuff, as he also detailed 'work-arounds' for bits of the technology that don't work as cleanly as they ought
• The book finishes with two highly practical sections, the titles of which speak for themselves:

  • Answers to hot discussion topics and burning questions
  • Little known but interesting features and behaviours of LinkedIn

If you're reading this Business Booster, then it's likely that you're in business in one way or another. If you're not an active user of LinkedIn you ought to be - it's the world's largest on-line business network, with more than 32 million users worldwide. Members are serious about business, for example, executives from all the Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.

You should be too.

Buy the book and do something about it.