Since its inception, LinkedIn has grown to more than 55 million users in 200 countries world-wide. This is no accident. LinkedIn is based on the principal that every person is connected by no more than six degrees of separation from everybody else. In other words, an individual can connect to any other individual simply by utilizing their network of contacts. And this is where LinkedIn can help business owners and their employees. The website keeps track of who knows who and provides a means to connect people based on professional expertise, needs, and interests.
There are two kinds of contacts every person has – strong and weak. “Strong” contacts are family members, friends, and close business associates; “weak” contacts are those people we work with, and have done business with, but may not know very well. It is upon the “strong” contacts that most people go to when they need something, and it is from “strong” contacts that, at least initially, a LinkedIn network is built.