Linked In for Business

Whether you have read our LinkedIn Reader or not, you will, now that LinkedIn is the no.1 growing site for business professionals. It is a site that is used by both professionals and whole businesses alike.The website was founded in 2002 and launched in spring, 2003. IT was founded by Reid Hoffman. Hoffman began his career at Apple and Fujitsu after graduating from Stanford and Oxford universities in the 1990s. He was a member of the founding board of American financial transaction website PayPal and along with several other members,founded LinkedIn after PayPal was acquired by eBay in 2002.By 2011, LinkedIn had amassed 135,000,000 users from across the world. This includes all the executives from the Fortune 500 and all major industries and industry leading companies.As the map below demonstrates, LinkedIn members are fairly spread around the world with the largest group being Americans. Approximately one in six Americans is a member of LinkedIn. The same proportion of Brits are also members As well as allowing individuals to join LinkedIn, the network allows various companies to register themselves as members. The reasons for this will be outlined in Part 2. The following graph illustrates the most popular sectors or industries from which the companies come. The most popular industries are hi-tech, manufacturing and finance