Networking alternatives to LinkedIn

Albert Costill reports on ‘12 professional networking alternatives to LinkedIn’ for searchenginejournal.com

Since 2002, LinkedIn has become the world’s largest online professional networking site with over 380 million members in over 300 countries and territories.

Despite LinkedIn being the largest professional networking in the world, there are plenty of other networking options to help you make meaningful connections. Some of these alternatives may be more helpful than LinkedIn because they focus on creating more professional connections based on your location or niche.

Costill’s Top 5 suggestions are as follows:

Makerbase – The easiest way to describe Makerbase is as an IMDb for individuals who make software, such as apps and websites. It was launched earlier this year by ThinkUp’s founders – Lifehacker founding editor Gina Trapani and entrepreneur Anil Dash. It’s is free to join by using a Twitter account, however, anyone can view the content on the site. Essentially, this network of creatives can use Makerbase to list all of the projects that they’ve previously worked on and not by overlooked by the company that they worked for. 

Lunchmeet – This iOS app was influenced by the book “Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time” by Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz. It also uses LinkedIn’s API so that you can schedule impromptu lunch meetings with your LinkedIn contacts in order to create meaningful face-to relationships.

Xing – Founded in 2003, Xing is a serious European competitor to LinkedIn where you can find jobs, partners, advice, or list an opening in your business. In fact, Xing boasts that it’s the largest business network in German-speaking countries and has more than 14 million members. Xing is also used by professionals in over 200 countries and is available in 16 languages: English, German, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Turkish.

Plaxo – Launched in 2002 by Napster co-founder Sean Parker, Plaxo is an online address book that will automatically update, synchronize, recover, and unify your contacts.

Beyond.com – Beyond.com proudly calls itself “The Career Network.” Since 1998 Beyond.com has connected more than 45 million professionals with a wide-range of companies involved in the technology, healthcare, business, and marketing industries.

Read the full article here: http://goo.gl/a2Fj9P