I’ve set up accounts and tried most of the top social media sites: Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, YouTube, LinkedIn. My purpose is either to advise clients on using these platforms to gain a business benefit, or to work for the benefit of my own consulting and writing business.

The social platform I’m really starting to like is LinkedIn. I’ve been on LinkedIn for years , but am just now starting to take advantage of it. The reason it’s working now is that LinkedIn has finally given me a satisfying answer to the most essential question:

“What’s in it for me?”

Here’s a few ways LinkedIn showed value to me:

• For some research I’m conducting, I needed to find a true specialist: a former NYPD detective who worked in the city’s Real Time Crime Center and understood the technology and software that made it run. While using a search engine (Google), one of the search results was a LinkedIn profile of just the person I wanted to meet. I wasn’t connected to this person, but LinkedIn showed me that a connection of mine was connected to someone who was connected to the former detective. I asked for an introduction via these professionals on the LinkedIn network and within a few days I was interviewing the exact expert I needed to find. That would not have happened without LinkedIn.
• I joined several groups that are relevant to the business some of my clients are in. I’ve been able to start new discussions and participate in others and in this way communicate in an educational and professional way with target customers. That’s valuable.

LinkedIn is working for me. What social platforms work best for you?