Lauren from the Street.com, has a nice write-up on how social networking can be a small business’ friend when it comes to “professional networking”. She suggests LinkedIn Answers as an easy way to find quality answers to questions you have on macro topics. Actually,

Cynthia Trevino, a small-business owner who also maintains a blog called Small Company Big Image, needed to find a referral for a customer near San Francisco, about 500 miles away.

Guess where she found her answer. On LinkedIn Answers:

I went online to LinkedIn early that morning and posted this question to everyone who works in the Bay area,” she says, “and I got 20 responses within two hours.

Lauren then goes on to suggest that LinkedIn may not be the best forum to discuss issues on narrow topics such as handling payroll issues or firing an employee. But, I beg to differ. LinkedIn has probably the most extensive range of Answers on almost every professional topic under the sun.

Couple of things to keep in mind.

1. Search on LinkedIn is super-easy

Read more about it in this piece I wrote recently. Search through Answers to find Q&A threads on professional topics.

2. Even topics you may consider arcane are generally well-represented on LinkedIn, owing to the Long Tail of knowledge across different professional groups.

For e.g. the 2 examples suggested by Lauren have a depth of Q&A’s on LinkedIn that I was able to find with a simple search. Here are some questions on payroll issues and here are some on employee hirings/firings. In addition you can delve into categories such as Employment & Labor Law, Personell Policies, Career Management, etc…

So, what are you waiting for? Pick a topic and go searching for answers on LinkedIn. BTW, I work at LinkedIn as community evangelist. Follow me on Twitter.

Have you found an answer on LinkedIn you couldn’t find anywhere else. Share.

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