Business networking in the context of "LinkedIn"

A social club or social organization may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation or activity with in an organizational association known as a club. Examples include book discussion clubs, chess clubs, country clubs, final clubs, strip clubs, fishing clubs, gaming clubs, women's clubs, gentlemen's clubs (known as private member’s clubs in the U.S.), hunting clubs, military officers' clubs, political clubs, religious clubs (such as Christian fellowships), traditional fraternal organizations, service clubs, fraternities and sororities (Greek-letter organizations), business networking clubs, science clubs, hobbyist clubs, informal professional associations, and university clubs. The term can also refer to a criminal headquarters, such as the Ravenite Social Club or the Cage.

This article covers only three distinct types of social clubs – the historic gentlemen's clubs, the modern activities clubs and an introduction to fraternities and sororities. This article does not cover a variety of other types of clubs having some social characteristics. Social clubs have commonly been used by the Mafia as meeting places, many mob crews even being named after the club that they are based out of (The Palma Boys Crew, The Gemini Crew, The Veterans & Friends Crew).

Professional services networks are business networks of independent firms who come together to provide professional services to clients through an organized framework. They are notably found in law and accounting. Any profession that operates in one location, but has clients in multiple locations, may provide potential members for a professional network. This entry focuses on accounting, legal, multidisciplinary and specialty practice networks. According to statistics from 2010, members of these networks employ more than one million professionals and staff and have cumulative annual revenues that exceed $200 billion.

The accounting networks developed first to meet the US Securities and Exchange Commission's requirement for public company audits. They include the well-known accounting networks like PwC, Deloitte, Ernst & Young and KPMG (also known as the Big 4 Audit Firms) as well as more than 30 other accounting networks and associations. They are highly structured entities.