I am just old enough to admit that I started my career at a time the Internet was yet to become the world wide web... when meeting new work contacts yielded a 50/50 chance they had an email address on their business card (and when they did it was usually an AOL account featuring a string of random numbers).

I was a technology journalist for leading publications such as the iconic and (at the time) longest-running weekly IT magazine Computerworld reporting on the then very real fears the the year 2000 (or Y2K) would cause planes to drop out of the skies. I was a technology market research analyst for the formidable global tech advisory firm IDC when the tech bubble burst in 2000, from businesses latching onto the new world of e-commerce with very sketchy business plans to make money from driving up sales whilst increasing losses.

What I'm trying to say here is,  I'm relatively tech-savvy!

LinkedIn may not have the social cache of Facebook, the constant chatter of Twitter or the visual appeal of Instagram, but it is absolutely gaining traction particularly for the B2B sales cycle.

If you are in marketing or sales in any B2B enterprise, you need to stop believing that social media is a fad and pay attention to how buyers are shifting on their journey towards research and information gathering.

For example did you know that 84% of C-level/vice president executive use social media to support purchasing decisions?

If you are in B2B sales you should also be aware that the buyer journey is changing, and they aren't sticking to just one network. However, when buyers are looking for potential suppliers the majority (56%, in fact) use LinkedIn.