Social networking – Joined-up thinking: Social-networking sites are not just for teenagers. They have business uses too
The most avid users of social-networking websites may be exhibitionist teenagers, but when it comes to more grown-up use by business people, such sites have a surprisingly long pedigree. LinkedIn, an online network for professionals that signed up its ten-millionth user this week, was launched in 2003, a few months before MySpace, the biggest of the social sites. Consumer adoption of social networking has grabbed most attention since then. But interest in the business uses of the technology is rising.
http://economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8960555