MySpace for Business

For a salesperson on the go, joining an online community might seem like a time waster. But LinkedIn.com is more than fun and games. Created in 2003, the site won't help you uncover the latest campus gossip or the best new music like Facebook or MySpace, but it can help your business.

LinkedIn is a free social networking site for professionals. On other sites, users list their favorite music and books. On LinkedIn, meanwhile, members post their work history and academic background in hopes of finding new business through old friends. "For MySpace, it's about being cool or interesting, but business people are more utilitarian," says Konstantin Guericke, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based co-founder of the site. "LinkedIn is really about finding people who can help you with your job." With 7.7 million members, the odds of finding someone who can do just that are high. Guericke estimates that most new users will find at least 15 of their old buddies on the site.

Having a lot of friends was cool in middle school, but on LinkedIn, your friend's friend could be your next customer. If your friend went to college with a potential client, instead of making a cold call, you can ask your friend for a personal introduction. User profiles are also an efficient way to gain sales intelligence—finding out that a customer changed jobs or was promoted is as easy as logging in.

To prevent spam, users can only contact other members who are three degrees away—that is, a friend of a friend of a friend. Members also can pay to contact people outside of their network, but the site has a mail-rating scheme similar to eBay's feedback system. The messages of users with low ratings are only sent on the server, not via e-mail.

Sales is the second most represented field on the site: 1. 4 million sales professionals belong, and 46 percent of them are in a managerial position or higher. For Todd Defren, a part owner of SHIFT Communications, a public relations firm based in Boston, LinkedIn has been great for business. Through LinkedIn, he has asked friends to introduce him to customers and has a 50 percent success rate in arranging meetings with potential clients. "It is a resource for pre-qualified talent, and a way for me to come across as pre-qualified," he says.