Just when I thought I had enough with social networking. Meaning, no more joining new ones, I get lured into niche social networks particularly Groups with large and active members. With over 60 million members geared towards professionals and thousands of Groups, it’s definitely worth exploring LinkedIn. It’s also under the radar compared to Twitter and Facebook. LinkedIn should definitely be a part of your online marketing mix if it’s not already. Here are 6 reasons why I’m loving LinkedIn and particularly fond of the Group feature.

Even if you’re not on LinkedIn, why not consider it as part of your online marketing efforts? For example, there’s something for entrepreneurs, small business owners, large corporations, and job seekers. Let’s say you’re a job seeker, you have the potential to connect with a fortune 500 company, HR managers, and executive recruiters.

Last time I checked, Nike and Coca Cola are LinkedIn. If you’re a small business owner in direct sales, there are hundreds of groups for direct sales, home-based, or network marketing entrepreneurs. It’s a fantastic opportunity to network and reach your target audience. And if you can’t find a group in your market, start one yourself, and invite people to join you.

Although I’m mostly on Twitter and on Facebook sometimes, those sites serve different purposes than LinkedIn. Twitter gets so spammy especially with the repeated tweets about making money or business opportunities. And Facebook, I check in periodically to see what’s new with my friends and family, but I prefer not to engage in business babbles with them. I’m not saying Facebook can’t be used as a business tool but it’s generally more on the friendship side for me. I know there are groups and fan pages with Facebook to tap into but that’s another post for another day.

However with LinkedIn, it has always been about connecting businesses, job seekers, and professionals. The fact that you can’t easily follow someone and have that person follow you back like you could on Twitter is proof that there’s an air of “gate keeping” approach with LinkedIn and I kinda like that. It keeps the spammers on the low radar.

So let’s start with Groups:

Are you using LinkedIn as part of your online marketing mix? What do you like or don’t like about it? Leave your comments or questions in the Comment section.