Everyone knows about LinkedIn’s value as a networking tool for professionals, but what about it’s value as a social network as well. Do people use LinkedIn to communicate with people they already know for things other than having to do with business? It turns out, these conversations may happen much more often than you think.
According to a recent study by Forbes, 70.6% of LinkedIn users reported using the site to reconnect with past business associates and colleagues. Many would wonder why people are using LinkedIn for this purpose rather than a larger social network like Facebook. The answer is type of people with which they wish to connect. Facebook is organized into networks by school or location. LinkedIn, on the other hand, allows users to form their own networks by selecting their connections and also by putting in the companies for which they have worked. Therefore, if someone were trying to find their old friends from high school, they would be more likely to be able to find them on Facebook, but when looking for old business associates who may not share any personal friends, it will be much easier to locate them on LinkedIn.
Another reason people use LinkedIn for social interaction is the generational gap. Since their is a somewhat professional element always present, LinkedIn is viewed as an acceptable form of communication among all age groups. While there are many different ages of users on Facebook and Twitter, they tend not to interact with each other as much as on LinkedIn. Many high school age students think it is “uncool” to interact with their parents on Facebook, and college students make lots of posts on Twitter and Facebook that they would not want to be made available to all of the adults they know.
Even though most people would not expect it, LinkedIn fosters much more social interactions than you would think. It connects users through profession rather than location or school and thereby creates a whole new system for social discussions.
LinkedIN Guru 