LinkedIn is still one of the most underrated social networks around. Twitter, G+, and Facebook get a lot of attention in the media and in the tech world. LinkedIn can be as useful for bloggers. LinkedIn can not only help bloggers connect with other professionals, it can be used to develop post ideas too. Here are 8 ways to use LinkedIn to expand your blogging business:

1. Connect with other pros: networking in the blogging world is much easier these days thanks to tools such as LinkedIn and MeetUp. There is no reason you should not connect with your favorite tweeps and Facebook fans on LinkedIn. Reaching out to other professionals in your field is a good idea too.
2. Join LinkedIn groups: there are a ton of groups available on LinkedIn. These groups can be used to share your ideas, learn new things, and even promote your blog. You do want to take your time to provide some value to other group members to get the most out of your efforts.
3. Ask and answer questions: answering questions on LinkedIn can get your profile and the sites you have listed on it more attention. Are you stuck with a problem? There is no reason not to ask for advice from other professionals in your field.
4. Build up your credibility: some folks assume that if they call themselves a “guru” enough times, people will believe them. You may be able to fool some folks with that approach. By answering other people’s questions and sharing your great content on LinkedIn, you can build yourself up as a  real “guru” and gain the respect of your community.
5. Share your content: LinkedIn gives you multiple ways to share your content with others. You can always link your blog’s RSS feed to your profile. Sharing your top articles in your timeline is not a bad way to get them more attention. The sky’s the limit here.
6. Mine for product and blog ideas: by looking at what people are asking and what issues they are dealing with, bloggers can easily come up with new product and blog ideas. You’d be surprised to see how many people have had success with this approach.
7. Look for partners: looking for people to bring on-board to help you take your blog to the next level? The LinkedIn community is a great place to start your search for the right people. You can use it to hire people, find JV partners and even affiliates.
8. Keep up with news: tools such as LinkedIn Today make it so easy for LinkedIn users to keep up with the latest news going on in their industry. It is always nice to know what other users are reading and sharing.

LinkedIn may not have as many members as Twitter and Facebook. But it is a superb community and can offer bloggers a lot of value. It should be a part of your social media strategy.

There was a time when starting a social network from scratch would have cost thousands (if not millions) of dollars. Don’t get me wrong. Social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have humongous costs associated with their operations. But the up-front startup costs for social networks is not that high these days. Software solutions such as Elgg and BuddyPress can turn any website into a social network. If only running and growing a social network were that simple. Building a loyal following for a blog can be hard. Starting a social network and making it a viable business can be doubly challenging.

Making your social network a success overnight is expecting too much. But there are steps you can take over time to grow your social network and take it to the next level. Here are 7 ways to do just that:

1. Add unique tools: just because you are using an open source software to run your social network does not mean you can’t hire developers to add unique tools to your social networks. Every social network needs to have promotional tools such as badges, widgets, sharing tools and more. Tools that can make your members’ lives easier are must have too.
2. Develop superior reputation system: your social network’s reputation systems says a lot about your business. If it is easy to game or ineffective, you are not going to have a lot of success with your social community over the long run. Don’t forget to count your members’ feedback towards setting top members apart from the rest.
3. Embrace social media: social network owners can always make everyone sign up for a new account. There is nothing wrong with that approach. But wouldn’t it be easier for everybody involved if, let’s say, Twitter and Facebook logins were supported on your website? Setting up these systems is quite easy. Having them enabled can get more people to join your community and start contributing.
4. Empower users: in order for your social network to grow, you need to give your community members freedom and the tools to share in and contribute to your community. It never hurts to feature your top users on the front page of your site from time to time. You should also give your visitors the freedom to interact freely with other members of your community and the content on your site.
5. Reduce spam: this goes without saying. No software system is hack or spam proof. You don’t want to end up having thousands of fake accounts in your community’s database. Do yourself a favor and take the appropriate security measures to protect your website. Use services such as reCAPTCHA to keep spammers at bay. Finally, give your users the option to report spammy posts. That could save you some time.
6. Reward your community: one of the best ways to get your community even more engaged is by giving away freebies and rewarding your top users. Throwing contests and giveaways can excite your community members and help generate buzz for your website. You don’t want to go broke doing this, so stay on the reasonable side.
7. Encourage user generated content: every social network owner should allow their community members to blog, vlog, or add content to their site. You should also invest some funds in developing sharing tools (vote counter, bookmark button, …) for your community. Don’t forget to offer your visitors import and export tools for their content.

Creating and growing a social network from scratch can take a bit of time. The above tips should give you some ideas on how to generate some momentum for your social network going forward.

PostRank: one of the best blog search engines out there. It can help you figure out which blogs are dominating which niches. It is very handy if you are looking for quality blogs to follow as well.

Topsy: a powerful Twitter search engine that can find you the latest articles and blog posts on any topic. It even shows you which influential Twitter users have retweeted those articles.

CommentLuv Search Engine: a handy search engine that can find you those CommentLuv blogs. You can use those sites to get links for your blog and link your posts to related articles on other blogs.

Questions.com: an interesting search engine that digs up questions and answers on any topic. Great way to come up with new ideas for your website.

Addictomatic: a complete search engine that searches blogs, video, and news sites and finds you the content you are looking for. A great tool to use to see what is going on in your niche.

Have you got any suggestion? Which of the above sites have you used in the past?

What’s impressive about audiotool is not just all the drums, tools, and effects that you get, but also the fact that you get to save your work and let others use it to develop their own music.  It brings a whole new meaning to making music in a social way. If you must, you can make your music private and keep the fun all to yourself.

No matter how advanced of a musician you are, it’s always nice to connect with others over something you are passionate about. audiotool is just the tool for that. Let’s hope it sticks around.

If you are planning to start your own social networking community, here are 5 content management systems you should try:

WordPress MU: the multi-author version of WordPress is very dear to my heart. A few years ago, I started a network to allow people to start their own blogs using my host. That was based on an early edition of WMU.  The solution is much more powerful these days.

BuddyPress: if you thought WordPress MU was great, wait till you check out BuddyPress. It adds a “social” layer over your WMU installation and makes it easy for you to grow your community and build your own social network.

Elgg: one of my favorite content management systems on the market. It’s a very powerful service that makes creating a social networking website around your niche a whole lot easier. Your visitors can have their blogs, participate in forums and groups, and do a whole lot more on your Elgg website.

Pligg: it’s actually one of the tougher content management systems to master but it’s one heck of a solution for anyone who is looking to start a social network. It certainly saves you money as you won’t have to start from scratch.

Ning: perhaps the easiest way to start your own social network these days. You can always use their free service or sign up for their premium features to use your own domain name to host your social network upon Ning platform.

Your turn: What’s your favorite social content management system?

These days, people are so hooked on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites that they don’t get proper time to be on all of them without cutting out some of their daily activities. People are so addicted to the social media that companies are starting to ban Facebook and Twitter just to get people to focus on what they are getting paid for. In reality, you won’t have time to be a part of more than a handful communities. At the same time, being able to manage all your social profiles from one place is one way to save yourself some time and focus more on your conversations on Twitter, Facebook, and beyond.

Kazle is a cool new service that lets you manage your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and a few other top social networking accounts all from one place. The service is designed to help you save time while you are engaging in discussions on top social networking sites and manage your friends and followers more effectively. You can easily enable and disable networks that you don’t want to get updated through Kazle. You can also go through your alerts to find out what’s going on in your network.

There are plenty of other services that let you manage your social profiles all from one place. It really comes down to which service you are more comfortable with. But if you plan to be involved on Facebook, Twitter, and other websites, you may want to strongly consider managing your profiles all from one place. The more communities you add to your portfolio, the more difficult managing them all becomes. Kazle won’t write your tweets or Facebook updates for you, but it does save you time, which is a big part of the equation.

What’s your favorite social profile management service?