LinkedIn is a social network that is used mostly for business contacts. LinkedIn allows users to like to people they know so that clients and contacts can use their connections to introduce new contacts to you.

To start using LinkedIn simply go to Linkedin.com and sign up for an account. This is free and the sign up is fairly easy. Then you need to create a profile. Your profile can take a while to create so set aside 30 minutes to an hour to set it up. Keep your profile honest and clean, potential clients and employers will be reviewing your profile. Set your profile to standard view this allows Google and other search engines to list it, in search results. Customize your public profile’s URL to be your actual name instead of the default URL provided. This strengthens the visibility of this page in search engines, especially in association with your name.

Import your email address book to LinkedIn and find any people already on the site to connect with. Send a personal message to those people from your address book that are not on LinkedIn. Explain how the site can help them, don’t just try to guilt them in.

Review the people on LinkedIn and find people or companies that you know personally. Give these people a nice review and recommend them to others. The more reviews and recommendations you have, the better your profile looks.  Take the time to promote your LinkedIn profile on other networks, such as Facebook, Twitter or Digg.

Use LinkedIn to research potential clients or employers. Find their profile and read everything you can on them. The more you know, the better off you are. Search LinkedIn for your competition. Find out about their team of customers and partners, and use this knowledge to your advantage.

LinkedIn can also be used to conduct reference checks on job applicants. By inputting a company name and the number of years a person worked there, you can utilize the reference check tool to search and find the people who worked at the company during the same time period.

LinkedIn is a great social media networking site for businesses.  It even has an iPhone app to help you easily input and find contacts on the go. Linked-In is very user friendly and easy to navigate, even for a computer notice.