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LinkedIn is definitely a business-orientated social media tool and it’s aimed squarely at business people who want to network on line.

People you know, or would like to know, can be found by searching and approached to link up. That way it’s possible to build up a very extensive network of contacts. Recommendations can be given so people can see who has a good reputation and is well-regarded (in theory anyway!).

Your business profile can hold quite a bit of business and professional information about you, from educational history, qualifications and past jobs to current company details and expertise.

Groups can be created and discussions followed easily. Company profiles can also be created allowing you to promote your business to people searching for it or looking for you.

LinkedIn also has the useful features of being able to post and search for jobs – so it’s not just for entrepreneurs and people running businesses. There’s an e-mail feature too so you can contact people within and outside your network.

You can find out more here:  http://www.linkedin.com/

Like YouTube, Twitter might seem best suited to personal use. That would be a mistake though.

Twitter is a system that broadcasts messages of up to 140 characters. Anyone that has elected to ‘follow’ you then they’ll see your messages. You will see messages from anyone that you elect to ‘follow’.

Messages can be replied to or ‘retweeted’ – forwarded. It’s also possible to send private messages to someone who’s following you. Lists can be created of specific people whose messages you want to see. When you’re following more than about 50 people it can get hard to see the important/useful posts from the rest.

The Twitter web site allows the sending and viewing of messages but is a bit limited in functionality. There are 3rd-party tools like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite that allow you to create different ‘streams’ on screen that you can switch between easily. They also have other editing and organisational tools that make life on Twitter so much easier.

So why use Twitter for business?

It’s possible to spend a LOT of time just reading what’s being said and posting info on what’s going on in your life but that doesn’t help your business. Neither does just broadcasting how great you are, your latest offers and asking people buy from you.

It’s possible, as in life, to build good relationships with people online by being nice, helpful and informative. By helping people and providing information that’s useful to them you can gain a good reputation for yourself and your business.

By all means mention your latest success and always try to include references to your web site where possible but to get the best from Twitter, always try to build the relationships and think in terms of what you can give, rather what you can get. It’ll benefit you in the long term.

Oh, you might want to switch it on at fixed times in the day only, otherwise it can take over….

You can find more information here: http://support.twitter.com/

YouTube might seem a purely personal social media format at first but it’s easy to see why it’s been adopted by many businesses – especially those that provide products or services to people rather than other businesses.

Believe it or not, approximately 20% of all web searches are now done on YouTube. OK, many of those will be for Gemma Arterton or Rhianna but a lot are for business products and services.

It’s possible to create a channel f0r your business and style it with your logo, colours etc. so that visitors recognise your branding. Adding videos is really easy and the YouTube player can be embedded into your web site to play them from inside the web page, not the YouTube web site.

With YouTube having been bought by Google, you can be sure that it’ll be made even easier for businesses to advertise and be found here.

http://www.youtube.com

Facebook is the last, and the least in my book from a business perpective, main social media platform.

As a business, if you sell products or services directly to real people then it’s probably worth your time and effort. If not, leave it for connecting with friends and family.

It’s possible to create a company page if you’re a business – but the whole ethos and aim of Facebook, to my mind, doesn’t fit with this unless you’re Business to Consumer.

For me, Facebook is a bit like LinkedIn for personal use. You can add all sorts of information on your background, what you’re doing currently, your photos and much more. It has a messaging system so it’s possible to communicate with contacts inside the Facebook environment. There’s a chat facility too for real-time communication.

Facebook can be branded and extended with add-in applications so it can be customised and enhanced to provide a powerful interactive social platform.

You can find more information here: http://www.facebook.com/help/

If you want to read more about social media, here are a few links to recent posts on the web:

1) Social Media for Business

2) 30 Ways to Use Social Media for Business People

3) Embracing Social Media for Business

4) Using Social Media to Find the Right Customers

5) 10 Social Media Trends for 2011

6) What’s the Next Big Trend in Social Media Marketing