What is LinledIn and what are its benefits? Essay

of communicating directly with other users. The site allows every user to communicate with another directly. This results in an overload on timelines especially for businesses with a large number of followers which makes it difficult to reply to individual tweets in a timely manner.
LinkedIn. This site is similar to Facebook but mainly for business. It allows users to share their qualifications and job history with prospective employers and clients. The site is effective in building the company profile and social network by allowing account holders to engage in constructive discussions. LinkedIn has about 187 million active users with two-thirds being above 35 years of age. The site offers a great platform for conducting research on opportunities and on specific organizations. The LinkedIn culture is focused on introductions whereby users have the ability to see users who know the person or organization one would like to get introduced to.
LinkedIn is advantageous to business people for a number of reasons.
i. Networking. LinkedIn is especially helpful in some industries where users can locate prospective deals and network partners easily. Many entrepreneurs promote business relationships widely to market the deals for which they are in the market.
ii. Creating a buzz. Once a business has established a wide audience on the site, the owner can promote specific events that are happening within the company.
iii. Hire professionals. Unlike other social media sites that allow the company to simply market their products and to reach more people, LinkedIn allows the business owner to network and interact with professionals. It provides a great platform to find qualified partners, associates and vendors.
iv. Ease of research. LinkedIn provides business owners with a network that they can utilize to obtain feedback on their products and services as well as research on new opportunities that they would like to invest in.
The use of LinkedIn for marketing in a small business has some drawbacks. The fan base might be limited to older adults who are more professional and business-oriented. The younger internet users who do not visit the site might miss out on opportunities and deals by the business. The best version of the site that can be effective for a small business is paid which might deter small entrepreneurs from investing in the social media site.
Other social media sites that can be used to market business brands and products include
Google+. It is the second most popular website for businesses after Facebook. Like Facebook, Google+ provides users with the option of creating a brand page for their business. The site had about 540 million users in the year 2014 with 22% of adult internet users using the site on a monthly basis. 42% of internet users use the site to interact with the content from brands. Google+ creates as much traffic as Facebook and twice as much interaction as compared to Twitter which makes it ideal for businesses to reach a wide audience.
Pinterest. It is an online platform that allows users to