Roshan

A: Are you LinkedIn? I'm LinkedIn! Let's LinkIn! We're all LinkedIn!

While, like you maybe, I have heard of the website Linked In, for some reason it seems to have reached a tipping point with me recently: Three different people in the last few weeks have requested that I become part of their LinkedIn network, and yet I had not even met two of them, and even more interestingly, until last week, I had not even been on the site.

So it seemed fortuitous when some PR folks at LinkedIn contacted me last week to let me know about a Question and Answer session Senator Barak Obama was having with the LinkedIn small business community, which numbers 1.4 million. "Would you like to know more?" Indeed I would, about the Obama discussion specifically, and LinkedIn generally.

What is LinkedIn, you ask? While one of the distinguishing characteristics of Web 2.0 is the advent of social networking sites like MySpace, you and I know that the demographic cut of the MySpace and Facebook crowd is younger than we are, generally speaking. Enter LinkedIn. It is a networking site for professionals, businesses, franchisees and other entrepreneurs.

According to Kay Luo, Director of Corporate Communications for LinkedIn, "LinkedIn is an online network of more than 14 million professionals. It is a way to brand yourself, connect with your network, expand your network, build new business, and maintain and build relationships." Whereas a site like MySpace allows Gen X and Y to hang out online, as Ms. Luo explained to me, "With professionals, time is of the essence, so we try and help people be more effective and efficient."

It does so by helping you create a vast network.

When you join LinkedIn, you create a profile that summarizes your business accomplishments. You then use that profile to locate colleagues, franchise clients, associates, and friends. These folks become part of your LinkedIn network. But the best part is that because your people have their own network, your network expands geometrically to include your connections' connections, linking you to thousands of qualified professionals.

Let's say you need a lead with a business for your franchise. Well it just may be that within your expanded LinkedIn network, you will have that lead. Once you create your network, and you look someone up, say, Barack Obama, their profile will say

• "See who you and Barack Obama know in common"
• "Get introduced to Barack Obama"
• "Contact Barack Obama"

It's sort of like that parlor game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Within your network, or expanded network, you never know who you might know.

Which brings us to the Obama event. What do you do when you have 1.4 million entrepreneurs Linked In? Well, the folks at LinkedIn figured there has to be a lot of wisdom in that group, so it began a Question and Answer series, both by and between regular LinkedIn members, as well as luminaries, one of whom is Senator Obama.

The Senator posed this question of the group: How can the next president better help small business and entrepreneurs thrive? Over 1,500 answers have been posted, many of which are quite astute.

Of course, the Obama question and answer is but a sampling of what you can learn and gain when you tap into a new millennium resource like LinkedIn. Business is changing, and we better change with it.

About Steve Strauss

Steven D. Strauss is one of the world's leading experts on entrepreneurship. A lawyer, author, and public speaker, his latest book is The Big Idea: How Business Innovators Get Great Ideas to Market. Steve's columns regularly appear on USA Today.com, Workz.com, Bizland.com, and Staples.com, among others. You can sign up today for his free newsletter, "Small Business Success Secrets!" at his business web site - www.MrAllBiz.com.