How journalists can break stories and find sources on LinkedIn

The business-focused social media site has numerous tools that can enable reporters to find sources and information they won’t find elsewhere.

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Just wanted to let you know that I used a source I found on LinkedIn while on deadline today. I needed a consultant with very specific expertise (FDA Part 11 controls for laboratories), and everyone I contacted from a Google search was too busy to talk to me today. But I found a recently retired consultant who created a LinkedIn group on the subject. He had time to talk–and saved my neck.

We’ve also had some other success stories. A longtime radio journalist in San Francisco said she was able to use LinkedIn recently to find and reach the person she needed for a story, but because she is rather private, I won’t share the details here. Another success story involves a USA Today reporter using advanced search functions to learn about a company’s upcoming plans. The story about how this reporter used LinkedIn was published by the International Journalists’ Network (IJNet):

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