Stories by: C.G. Lynch

Our LinkedIn guide delivers expert advice on how to build a strong profile, practice good etiquette, manage connections and recommendations, and stand out to recruiters and employers with the social networking service. You'll also find analysis on how to take your LinkedIn use to the next level with company profiles, free applications, and more.

During the past two years, Facebook became the darling of Silicon Valley, watching its user base grow exponentially as its founder bombastically turned down billion dollar acquisition offers. But as the sobering realities of a tightening economy set in, it turns out LinkedIn, the social networking site for professionals, might be on track to build a more stable and immediately profitable business model that, unlike Facebook, doesn't rely solely on advertising and never-ending injections of venture capital.

Steven Burda, 27, says he can guess what you'll think about him at first. The former Soviet Union resident who now lives in a Philadelphia suburb has more than 34,000 immediate contacts (known as "connections") on LinkedIn, the online social network for professionals. "The perception is that someone like me must have too much time on my hands," he says. "I've heard that a few times." In fact, Burda is rated number four among the most-connected LinkedIn members — and belongs to a controversial group of LinkedIn users called open networkers. But dismissing him as an Internet eccentric would be wrong.

In part one of our review of the LinkedIn applications platform, we looked at presentation, file sharing and travel applications that helped you collaborate with your fellow connections on the professional social network.

The late October launch of LinkedIn's application platform ushered in new capabilities for the social network aimed at professionals. LinkedIn decided to start small, adding a list of nine free applications aimed at boosting your productivity and sharing Web content.

The launch of LinkedIn's applications platform on Tuesday indicates that the business-focused social networking site plans to proceed carefully with rolling out new technologies to its professional user base, avoiding the laissez-faire approach espoused by consumer competitors such as Facebook and MySpace.

Within your LinkedIn profile, recommendations, which you must seek out and approve from contacts of your choosing, give employers a fuller view of you as a direct report, boss, colleague, or client. They make your LinkedIn profile more dynamic and personal than the fairly static information (where you worked, what you did) that appears in your general resume.

As the economy falls deeper into recession, many people have turned to LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, to job hunt and connect with contacts who might help them land a new gig. But career experts say your LinkedIn job-hunting efforts will all be for naught if you don't build your profile page properly and ensure that it is search-friendly for potential employers and recruiters.

Building a strong profile on LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, has taken on greater importance as the economy slips deeper into a recession. What information you decide to include, or exclude, could affect future job opportunities as well as your overall identity on the public internet.

Twitter is going mainstream. Who would have thought it?