How LinkedIn Are You?

As I sat there, engaging in the usual side chat prior to class, I was astonished when two out of the 5 people sitting involved in the conversation stated: “I don’t have a LinkedIn profile—should I?” The remaining three, myself included, just stared blankly trying to think of a polite way of gently saying “OF COURSE YOU NEED A LINKEDIN PROFILE!?!” Aside from the fact that we are in the final semester of our MBA program, and should know better, the fact of the matter is, there are a lot of people who don’t recognize the benefits that LinkedIn can have for themselves and their company.

All too often, we find ourselves weighing the pros and cons with clients of today’s social sources and their potential impact on their brand recognition. Though it may take some time to warm up to the idea of Facebook, or Twitter, we will never negate the benefits that LinkedIn can have on business. LinkedIn has created a virtual “corporate mingle” for everyone in search of that next opportunity via contacts and past clients, industry related groups and more.

LinkedIn’s latest innovation in establishing your next corporate catalyst is their new mobile application, CardMunch. Statistics show that 10 billion business cards are printed every year. Rather than reflecting the next episode on Hoarders “Burried Alive by Business Cards,” this app allows you to take a snap shot of a new contact’s business card, instantly identifying personal connections, business history, mutual groups and more; and then saving a digital copy of the card to your phone.  Now you can build your company network with the click of a button.

Click here for featured article on Mashable.