The buzz for the professional networking site LinkedIn may not be the loudest, and LinkedIn may not be the flashiest social network when compared to Pinterest and Facebook, but it should be an important part of your social profile. Here are a few facts to get us started:

• As of December 31, 2011 (the end of the fourth quarter), professionals are signing up to join LinkedIn at a rate that is faster than two new members per second.
• As of February 9, 2012, LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 150 million members in over 200 countries and territories.
• Fourth-quarter net income attributable to the company was $6.92 million, up from $1.58 million for the fourth quarter of 2010.

This tells us LinkedIn is growing. It has a true global reach and is having success as a publicly listed company.

If you’re creating a personal profile, think of it as your online resume and a place to network, find new employment opportunities and keep up with others in your field.LinkedIn will walk you through the process of completing your profile and encourage you to begin connecting with other users you may know. It calls these other users “connections” and separates these connections by degrees. A first degree connection is someone already in your network. A second degree connection is someone that knows one of your first degree connections, but hasn’t yet connected with you. Here’s an example of how quickly this can spread to a vast viral professional network: At the time of this post, I have nearly 200 first degree connections, but the entire breadth of my potential network is over 2.4 million connections!

Now, shift gears to brand pages. Brand pages on LinkedIn are a great place to share your brand’s story with a professional and affluent online audience. It can be a hub for sharing your company’s products and/or services and a place where posting about industry successes doesn’t seem as out of place as on Facebook. My favorite feature about  branded pages is the opportunity to get feedback from your customers in the form of recommendations. For business-to-business ventures, think about looking online in a place to find what others have said about a potential client. Managing this functionality through LinkedIn can impact the future of how your company is perceived through peers.

Research is now showing 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations, while less than 15% are swayed by traditional advertisements.

When evaluating which networks you should have included in your social profile, LinkedIn should meet all of your ROI criteria – it’s growing, it has a deep user base, and it’s going to be with us for the long term.  If you have more questions about LinkedIn, our team with The Focus Group is ready to help manage your complete online and social profile.

Click here to contact Thomas Broadus, director of interactive and new media with The Focus Group.