Is LinkedIn the red headed step child of the big three?

In preparation for my LinkedIn presentation at Social Media FTW, I came to realize how much LinkedIn is ignored. I actually started realizing this when clients would ask me, "How do I get more followers on Twitter? How do I get more fans on Facebook?" Why do Facebook and Twitter get all the love? Why so much less hoopla over LinkedIn? Are we missing the boat a little?

Think I am wrong? Searches on Google for Facebook turn out 2,820,000,000. For Twitter 2,100,000,000. And LinkedIn? A mere 216,000,000. Of these big 3, little ol' LinkedIn seems to be missing some love.

Now consider this:

• LinkedIn gains a new member every second.
• Currently has over 70 million members in 200 countries.
• Executives from every Fortune 500 company are LinkedIn members.
• 50% of business decision makers are LinkedIn users.
• 41% of people using LinkedIn for marketing have generated customers from it.
• 70% of job seekers use LinkedIn to find employers.
• 80% if employers use LinkedIn to find employees.

So why so much time and devotion on Facebook and Twitter? Especially when marketing experts today are predicting their eventual decline?

Perhaps it can be reflected in the cartoon below from HubSpot.

What do the numbers really say?

Even though Twitter may have more 'users', does it really have more value? And Facebook may have more active users than both LinkedIn and Twitter combined, but if you are in the B2B world, how useful is their activity to your business? Why do so many ignore LinkedIn?

What you are missing out on.

Perhaps it is just that so many do not realize all the uses of LinkedIn. It is not just your online resume. That's so yesterday and one dimensional.

What LinkedIn can be used for:

• Personal branding (your profile)
• Community building (groups)
• Re-connecting with colleagues (you might know)
• Find your peers (groups, answers)
• Learning new things (answers)
• Sharing your expertise (answers)
• Lead generation (answers, ads)
• A monitoring tool (company buzz)
• Job hunting (jobs)

Thinking it might be time to re-examine LinkedIn?