LinkedIn is an online network of more than 20 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries. It's a free service that helps you build a large network of business friends and useful contacts. As of today, I have 486 direct connections on LinkedIn. That translates to a network of 6,894,800+ contacts only two steps away, friends of friends.

You can invite others to join your network. The standard invitation says, "I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn." Pretty boring. As a reader, it's hard to know if it's a good idea to accept this kind of invitation, or not, because there's no information to go on. To encourage others to accept my invitations, I created a more detailed invitation.