Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Bussiness Social Networks Pages : 2,3

2. Types of Bussiness Networking Pages: 3,4

3. Benefits of Business Social networks Page: 4

4. Some ideas for social networking for Business Pages: 4,5

5. 7 examples of Business social networks Pages: 5-8

6. LinkedIn Pages: 9-114

7. Abstract and Reccomendations Page: 15

8. References Page: 16

Introduction to Business Social networks:

Business networking is a socioeconomic business activity by which groups of like-minded businesspeople recognize, create, or act upon business opportunities. A business network is a type of business social network whose reason for existing is business activity. There are several prominent business networking organizations that create models of business networking activity that, when followed, allow the business person to build new business relationships and

generate business opportunities at the same time. A professional network service is an implementation of information technology in support of business networking. Many business people contend business networking is a more cost-effective method of generating new business than advertising or public relations efforts. This is because business networking is a low-cost activity that involves more personal commitment than company money. Country-specific examples of informal networking are guanxi in China, blatin Russia, and Good ol' boy network(US)/Old boy network(UK).In the case of a formal business network, its members may agree to meet weekly or monthly with the purpose of exchanging business leads and referrals with fellow members. To complement this business activity, members often meet outside this circle, on their own time, and build their own one-to-one business relationship with the fellow member.Business networking can be conducted in a local business community, or on a larger scale via the Internet. Business networking websites have grown over recent years due to the Internet's ability to connect business people from all over the world. Internet businesses often set up business leads for sale to bigger corporations and businesses looking for data sources for business.Business networking can have a meaning also in the ICT domain, i.e. the provision of operating support to businesses and organizations, and related value chains and value networks.

Types of Business Networking :

Online business networkingBusinesses are increasingly using business social networks as a mean of growing their circle of business contacts and promoting themselves and their business online. In general these business networking tools allow business professionals to build up their circle of business partners trusted to do business with. By connecting these business partners the business networking tools allow individuals to search for certain business people within their network. Through introductions, the members of these tools then can get in contact with new prospective business partners. Since businesses are expanding globally, social networks make it easier to keep in touch with other business contacts around the business world. Specific cross-border e-commerce business platforms and business partnering networks now make globalization accessible also for small and medium sized businesses.

Face-to-face business networkingMany professionals tend to prefer face-to-face networking over online-based networking because the potential for higher quality business relationships is possibleFace-to-face networking can also occur through referral business networking clubs.

General business networkingBefore online business networking, there was and has always been, business networking face-to-face for business. "Schmoozing" or "rubbing elbows" are expressions used among professional business professionals for introducing and meeting one another in a business context, and establishing business relation.

Networked BusinessesWith business networking developing more business, many businesses now have this as a core part of their business strategy. Those businesses that have developed a strong business network of business connections suppliers and businesses can be seen as Networked Businesses, and will tend to source the business and their suppliers through the network of relationships that they have in place. Networked businesses tend to be open, random, and supportive, whereas those relying on hierarchical, traditional managed approaches are closed, selective, and controlling. These phrases were first used by businessman Thomas Power, businessman and chairman of Academy, an online business network, in May 2009

Benefits of Business Social Networks Build your customer base; Interact with your customers; Enjoy 'Real Time' communication; Learn what your customers think about

your company; Find out what your customers want; Build a referral base; and

Sell products and services. Gaining Traffic Increasing Sales Reputation Management Marketing Research Inexpensive

Some ideas for social networking for business:

TwitterYou'll lose customers fast if all you do is blast sales ads. Soft selling is the best way to sell on social networking sites. However, Twitter is perfect for asking your customers about their interests, and promoting your most recent blog post by adding the link. Add a few words about the link to peak their interests so they will click through to your blog.

LinkedInLinkedIn is a must for business networking. It is a virtual Rolodex where you can keep up with your contacts as they are promoted or move to different companies. You can identify prospects for your products and services, make connections virtually that

would be hard to make otherwise, and cultivate referral sources. It is an ideal site for business to business connections: make a recommendation, start a discussion or ask a question.FacebookSocial networking for business is achieved easily with a Facebook fan page. Facebook is more informal than LinkedIn, and this is a good place to share the human side of your company. Promote your employees' outside interests, and post pictures and videos of the people that make your company great.These are just a few social networking sites to help you reap the many advantages of social networking for business. Learn why your customers choose to join different sites, and add to the conversation.

7examples of Business social networks :

Many of us actively use sites like Twitter and Facebook to promote our businesses. And those of us looking to connect with more business-related contacts may turn to sites like LinkedIn to develop relationships with people we have worked with or may want to work with.

With the growing use of social networking by business professionals, there is a growing number of social networking sites focused on business users and meeting their needs. Here is a list of 20 social networking sites for entrepreneurs, business owners and professionals that are worth a look.

Biznik – A community of entrepreneurs and small businesses dedicated to helping each other succeed.

cmypitch.com – A business website for UK entrepreneurs to get quotes, advice and more.

Cofoundr – A community for entrepreneurs, programmers, designers, investors, and other individuals involved with starting new ventures.

E.Factor – An online community and virtual marketplace designed for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs.

Ecademy –A business network for creating contacts and sharing knowledge.

Entrepreneur Connect – A community by Entrepreneur.com where professionals can network, communicate, and collaborate with others.

LinkedIn – A professional network that allows you to be introduced to and collaborate with other professionals.

XING – A European business network with more than 7 million members.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an online network of more than 35 million business professionals, representing industries. Its' the largest and most popular business social networking siteIt's a business-oriented Social networking service. Founded in December 2002 and launched on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. In 2006, LinkedIn increased to 20 million viewers. As of June 2013, LinkedIn reports more than 259 million acquired users in more than 200 countries and territories. The site is available in 20 languages, including English, French, German,Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Czech, Polish, Korean, Indonesian, Malay, andTagalog. As of 2 July 2013, Quant cast reports LinkedIn has 65.6 million monthly unique U.S. visitors and 178.4 million globally, a number that as of 29 October 2013 has increased to 184 million. In June 2011, LinkedIn had 33.9 million unique visitors, up 63 percent from a year earlier and surpassing MySpace. LinkedIn filed for an initial public offering in January 2011 and traded its first shares on May 19, 2011, under the NYSE symbol "LNKD"

Information you should about LinkedIn

LinkedIn homepage as of July 2011

Type Public

Traded as NYSE: LNKD

Foundation date

Santa Monica, California (2003)

Headquarters Mountain View, California,U.S.

Area served Worldwide

Founder(s) Reid HoffmanAllen BlueKonstantin GuerickeDJ PatilEric LyJean-Luc Vaillant

Key people Reid Hoffman (Chairman)Jeff Weiner (CEO)

Industry Internet

Revenue $1.52 billion (2013)

Net income $26 million (2013)

Employees 5,000 (2013)

Slogan(s) Relationships Matter

Website www.linkedin.com

Written in Java

Alexa rank  9 (April 2014)

Type of site Social network service

Advertising Google, AdSense

Registration Required

Users 277 million

Available in Multilingual

Launched May 5, 2003

Current status Active

Foundation and progress of LinkedIn

LinkedIn's CEO is Jeff Weiner, previously a Yahoo! Inc. executive. The company was founded by Reid Hoffmanand founding team members fromPayPal and Socialnet.com (Allen Blue, Eric Ly, DJ Patil, Jean-Luc Vaillant, Lee Hower, Konstantin Guericke, Stephen Beitzel, David Eves, Ian McNish, Yan Pujante, and Chris Saccheri).

Founder Reid Hoffman, previously CEO of LinkedIn, is now Chairman of the Board. LinkedIn is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices inOmaha, Chicago, New York, London, and Dublin. It is funded by Sequoia Capital,Greylock, Bain Capital Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and the European Founders Fund LinkedIn reached profitability in March 2006. Through January 2011, the company had received a total of $103 million of investment.In November 2012, LinkedIn released their third quarter earnings, reporting earnings-per-share of $0.22 on revenue of $252 million. In result of these numbers, LinkedIn's stock was up, trading at roughly $112 a share

Features of LinkedIn One purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people with whom they have some level of relationship, called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection. However, if the invitee selects "I don't know" or "Spam", this counts against the inviter. If the inviter gets too many of such responses, the account may be restricted or closed. This list of connections can then be used in a number of ways:

A contact network is built up consisting of their direct connections, the connections of each of their connections (termed second-degree connections) and also the connections of second-degree connections

(termed third-degree connections). This can be used to gain an introduction to someone a person wishes to know through a mutual contact.

Users can not upload their resume any more. This was a feature but became redundant in late 2012.

It can then be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in one's contact network.

Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates.

Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their existing contacts can introduce them.

Users can post their own photos and view photos of others to aid in identification.

Users can now follow different companies and can receive notifications about the new joining and offers available.

Users can save (i.e. bookmark) jobs that they would like to apply for.

Users can "like" and "congratulate" each other's updates and new employments.

Users can see who has visited their profile page.

The "gated-access approach" (where contact with any professional requires either an existing relationship, or the intervention of a contact of theirs) is intended to build trust among the service's users. LinkedIn participates in the EU'sInternational Safe Harbor Privacy Principles. The feature LinkedIn Answers, similar to Yahoo! Answers, allowed users to ask questions for the community to answer. This feature was free, and the main difference from the latter was that questions are potentially more business-oriented, and the identity of the people asking and answering questions is known. As of January 31, 2013, the LinkedIn Answers feature is no longer supported. LinkedIn cites a new 'focus on development of

new and more engaging ways to share and discuss professional topics across LinkedIn' as the reason for the retirement of the feature.Another LinkedIn feature is LinkedIn Polls. In December 2011, LinkedIn announced that they are rolling out polls to their one million groups. In mid-2008, LinkedIn launched LinkedIn DirectAds as a form of sponsored advertising. In October 2008, LinkedIn revealed plans to open its social network of 30 million professionals globally as a potential sample for business-to-business research. It is testing a potential social-network revenue model-research that to some appears more promising than advertising. On May 31, 2013 LinkedIn added two-factor authentication, an important security enhancement for preventing haxors from gaining access to your account. On July 23, 2013 LinkedIn announced their Sponsored Updates ad service. Individuals and companies can now pay a fee to have LinkedIn sponsor their content and spread it to their user base. This is a common way for social media sites such as LinkedIn to generate revenue.

Abstract Using Social networks become an essential thing for any business marketing , research and development departments , managers, professionals, etc. especially for small businesses that needs to be recognized fast by customers , whose number of logging on these sites is growing vastly each day. LinkedIn is one of the most obvious examples of Business social networks who attracted numerous numbers of businesses and Professionals that allowed it to make revenues of 1.52 billion dollars in 2013.

Recommendations

Businesses should use social networks to broaden their exposure to the public at a much lower cost than traditional marketing. Establishing a Presence on such social networks can help them target new consumers and make their brand more visible. While social business networks can be a powerful marketing tool , it's not entirely risk free. Fans and followers are free to post their comments on these platforms , exposing the business to the possibility of negative publicity , so quick response to these comments is an essential thing to minimize the damage of it.

References

http://www.shoutmeloud.com/benefits-of-using- social-media-for-business.html

http://webresults.ie/Info-Centre/Articles/ Advantages-of-social-networking-for-business

http://www.sitepoint.com/social-networking-sites- for-business/

Hubert Österle, Elgar Fleisch, Rainer Alt (2001), Business networking: shaping

collaboration between enterprises (2, illustrated ed.), Springer, ISBN 978-3-540-41351-6

 "LinkedIn - About". LinkedIn Corporation. 2013.Archived from the original on August 1, 2013. Retrieved March 13, 2014.

 Reid Hoffman (May 5, 2013). "LinkedIn Turns 10: Celebrating 10 Years of Relationships That Matter

 "How Much Did LinkedIn Pay for ChoiceVendor