LinkedIn is a popular social network of more than 20 million professionals from all over the world, representing 100′s of different professions. Joining is not simply a matter of filling in a few details and away you go.

Because of the site’s nature, ie, it is for professionals, you are expected to have a complete and professional looking profile. This is the start of your personal branding and should not be ignored. If you do ignore this aspect you will find that many users treat you with disdain.

Add a picture: a picture puts a face to the name and creates a more personal profile.

Personalize your URL: when you join you are given a computer generated url – change it and personalize it.

Create an email signature file: the signature file is written in html but you can personalize with your own details.

Summary and specialties: you can write your own summary so make it an important part of your profile. The specialties can be important when it comes to searches. Your details will be shown in the relevant search results.

To complete your branding you need to participate in discussions, ask questions and, most importantly, provide answers to questions in your area of expertise. Branding yourself has become the key web 2.0 success.

Facebook and Microsoft have reached agreement to extend their advertising partnership by placing Live Search on Facebook. LiveSide News Blog included an email from Microsoft which read in part:

As part of the deal, Microsoft will work with Facebook to bring its customers Live Search-powered web search and search ads by the end of the calendar year. Facebook will work with Microsoft to design the best search experience for Facebook’s customers and advertisers.

This is a big step forward for Microsoft. With search results being returned within Facebook, Live Search is sure to add to Microsoft’s income. With the millions of users coming through Facebook each day it may even boost Microsoft’s share of search results – only marginally, however as Microsoft spreads its wings and grabs all these little margins, they eventually add up to being a big margin.

For once, it may even be Google that loses a little search traffic. For Facebook users, it may be a plus. Then again it may be the start of a much broader advertisement placement throughout Facebook. Either that or a Microsoft takeover. I am not sure which is worse?

Social marketing is not necessarily a difficult task. Many people would like to tell you differently, however the actual tasks involved, rather than being difficult, are just time consuming.

Because they are time consuming, many website owners engage experts to undertake the social marketing aspect of their site management. This is fine and can often be quite cost effective. However, even though you have an expert carrying out your social marketing campaign, that doesn’t mean you cant add a little DIY social marketing yourself.

As a business owner, part of your management role should be to spend a little time each day or each week roaming the web and checking on your competition. You should also be familiarizing yourself with what is new within your business niche.

Blogs are big part of today’s business world so you should always be on the lookout for new information provided through blogs. I even advise either bookmarking sites of interest, or signing up to receive newsletters and RSS feeds, even from your competition. What better way to watch your competition – they provide you with all the information!

The DIY side of marketing comes forth whilst you are visiting sites and blogs. I suggest you leave your footprints where ever you go, even on your competitors sites. Leave a comment, add to a conversation, perhaps even provide and opposite point of view. Other visitors will see your comment and perhaps even come to your site to see what else you have to say.

More importantly, particularly on related sites, you can build a rapport with that blogger that may overtime add to the success of your site. At worst, you will receive a back link from your comment. Even better, you may receive a link from others who appreciate your content.

During all this process, you are helping to spread the word about your business in a very social way – social marketing at its purest. I find it quite ironic; I can visit a competitor’s website and leave a comment advertising myself and my site while perhaps receiving a little link juice.

Sphinn has joined the ranks of several other social bookmarking sites by placing nofollow’s on all new links placed in the ‘upcoming topics’ area. Some SEO experts swear by social bookmarking sites for link building strategies – they may need to think again now.

If a submission makes out of the ‘upcoming topics’ and onto the front page then the nofollow will be removed. Consideration is being given to removing the nofollow once a submission has received a set number of votes.

Social bookmarking has been popular as an SEO link building strategy to the point that many sites have been flooded with content that is below acceptable standards. They have, up until now, still benefited from the link.

There are two issues to this situation. Quality is in the eye of the beholder so what I think is a good article may not meet your standards and vice-versa. Many good submissions will miss out whilst some not so good will sneak in, not based on quality but based on who you know.

Having said that, if submissions have no chance of accumulating sufficient votes to have the nofollow removed then perhaps the writers or their friends will refrain from submitting them. The overall quality of the links submitted will then improve which in the long run will benefit social bookmarking sites like Sphinn.

If your content is not really up to Sphinn’s standards, look elsewhere for social bookmarking.

Over the last eighteen months to two years there has been a sizable increase in the number of workers using the various social media sites as communication tools.

Facebook and Myspace where popular however micro blogging sites such as Twitter seem to be increasing in popularity. Some businesses are using Twitter as an internal mass communication system where short messages can be sent to the entire workplace instantly. For external communications, social networking sites allow for communication with others within the industry to receive up-to-date information.

Being able to access information from related sources and quickly disseminate it throughout an organization can be valuable particularly if a potential problem is rearing its head. Reputation management is an important aspect of the online world and being able to reduce or stop any potential problems early is important.

Managers have been slow to recognize the power of social networking and its ability to provide instant communication both internally and externally. As more managers accept new technology you can expect to see growth in the numbers of professionals using these social networking sites in their day to day business life.

With specialist sites such as Linkedin being developed on an almost daily basis, social networking is not going to go away soon. Professionals are either going to use them to their potential, or risk being left behind.