Just about everyone I met these days is on it, not sure of the total amount of users but my 3rd Degree of networking can reach over 1 million people.

Here’s mine: http://www.linkedin.com/in/logancarhire

And here’s the companies: http://www.linkedin.com/companies/logan-car-hire

Whats great about Linkedin is that you can build a network of the people you’ve met while doing business, keep in touch and more inportant use them to extend your network to help you find the people you want to talk about your business or industry.

Linkedin added some applications a while back and I’ve been looking over them and I’m amazed at how great they are when you take a little bit of time to work them.

Tripit

What they say:

See where your entire professional network is traveling and when you will be in the same city as your colleagues. Meet up at the next industry event or re-connect with old friends. Add the My Travel application to display your current location, upcoming trips and travel stats within your network.

What I think:

Great tool, it allows you to see who’s about and when. For example you will be able to find all the people in your network visiting the World Travel Market this year.

Wordpress

What they say:

Connect your virtual lives with the WordPress LinkedIn Application. With the WordPress App, you can sync your WordPress blog posts with your LinkedIn profile, keeping everyone you know in the know. Once added, you can filter your posts with a special LinkedIn tag and even display your personal WordPress Gravatar (global avatar). Updates are automatically sent to your network for instant notifications and gratification.

What I think:

It pulls your blog posts into your Linkein profile, one less thing to update, time saving.  Fantastic Tool!

Google Presentation

What they say:

Google presentations are a professional way to introduce yourself and your work. Add a presentation to your LinkedIn profile to:

• Showcase a recent talk or presentation.
• Display a visual portfolio of your professional accomplishments.
• Introduce yourself to recruiters and professional contacts viewing your profile.

It’s easy to get started. Upload a Powerpoint file or use Google’s free online application to create your presentation, then post it to your profile for others to view.

What I think:

This lets you deliver your sales pitch to anyone that wants to view, when they want to view it. Great way to promote products and service within your Linkedin network.

Adding these applications can make your Linkein profile explode off the page, if you’re not on Linkedin give it a try.

Take Care

Colin

Since launching www.logancarhire.com in May this year none of us have had that much spare time, the spare time we did have we used to get married. So now that the busy summer season is over we’ve now decided to leave the comfort of our office and do a bit of networking. For us it’s really important that we help our own local economy and give our business to other local businesses to give them the local support that they need a deserve.

Ok the 1700 Club.

This is some blurb from there website: http://www.the1700club.org.uk/

The 1700 Club offers Lanarkshire businessmen and women an effective and complimentary networking meeting forum for people who are serious about growing their business.

Why use the 1700 Club?

* We meet on a fortnightly basis – a commitment we find professional business people prefer. This also represents the most effective time period for developing strong business relationships with others.

* We present an informal, relaxed but professional meeting structure – there is no pressure to pass on referrals at every meeting, we recognise that it is more beneficial to offer quality referrals on a “know, like and trust” basis.

* We provide an extension to your own business network through a group of like-minded people – your own sales force!

So…

It started around 7am this morning and takes place every two weeks, the venue is mostly always the same. I got there bright and early and was welcomed by Colin Dick of Clydeforth Promotional Products and Alex McGrouther of PMG Business Services.

After finding a seat I was offered some breakfast, coffee, juice etc which to be honest was needed to waken me up, there was around 25 people from all differant business industries from car repair to banking attending the event and everyone gets a 1 minute slot to introduce yourself and tell everyone about your business.

Car Hire isn’t really the most sexiest of businesses in the world but I let them know what Logan was all about.

It was a good first step into business networking for me and I’ll go along in 2 weeks to catch up with some of the people I got talking to.

All in all very good

Take Care

Colin