Social Networking via the Internet: March 2008 Roundtable Review

By: Kristin Kane, Senior Consultant, Kane Partners Staffing Solutions

Technology is constantly changing, which has brought change to "the art of Social Networking." What are the myths and realties of "Social Networking," how do you adjust? How do you get involved and choose the right site that millions that are already utilizing? Karen P. Katz, founder of the Career Acceleration Network (CAN), LLC, a creative career strategist, and Kevin Winters, MBA, All Seasons Web Solutions have teamed up to educate the Collaborative on how to best use on-line social networking tools. Technology and networking has brought together people with a common interest of networking, meeting new people, sharing ideas and thoughts, both professional and personal in a new virtual world.

Most people are familiar with the Kevin Bacon game of "Six Degrees of Separation" a concept that each person is an average of 6 steps from Kevin Bacon. LinkedIn is the best example of an on-line network to describe this theory. When considering an on-line network or social group there is always an option to join or not to join, to connect or not to connect. For those that choose to join and connect they are building a personal on-line networking community. In doing this, it is suggested you "Nurture your Network" and maintain your contacts, not just use someone for information or a connection and throw away, like a tissue. Think before you accept a connection, make sure you are aware of who you are connecting with, keeping in mind you want to build a workable network. Try not to get caught up in getting the most connections, which can lead to useless or cold connections down the road.

The focus was on three key terms that included: Online Identity, Social Networking and Linked-In.

On-line Identity is described as your web presence that can be both personal and/or professional. Once your information is out there, it can be difficult to have it removed. Those with on-line identities can include anyone with an e-mail address, a log in name and password for a website, bloggers, those with websites of personal/professional, the list continues. Did you ever "Google" yourself? You can manage your on-line identity by limiting or not limiting the information you post or make public.

Social Networking connects those with similar interests in networking topics, a group of personal/professional contacts; it is assumed an on-line network. This is considered an extension of traditional networking. Usually it requires joining a particular group or logging onto a website associated with networking.

LinkedIn is the most well known and professional on-line networking sites. It allows members to search jobs, find old contacts, colleagues or friends and allows members to display professional profiles. This is an easy way to get connected in a non-invasive controlled environment.

There are two general categories for "social networking" either social or professional. Why connect, why join? To reconnect with someone in a non-invasive fashion, to keep in touch with someone or to seek information you may have forgotten about someone. The connection is done via the internet, which helps avoid what could be an awkward phone call. Once the connection is re-established it makes a future call a 'warm' call having a new commonality, your network.

Jason Alba is an author of two popular "Now What" books for LinkedIn and Facebook, excellent resources if you missed this Roundtable. Other notable sites to use in building an online presence include:
Business: LinkedIn.com, Spoke.com, ZoomInfo.com. At these sites you can create business profiles, list contact information and business related information.
Personal/Social: MySpace, Facebook, Friendster. You can post personal information, picture, chat on 'wall' spaces, usually non-work related.
Non-Profits: http://www.wildapricot.com/blogs/newsblog, KIVA.org.

Website vs. Blog: A website is often a static place usually used as an information portal for products or services, coined as 'push marketing'. A blog is a dynamic site that is constantly changing offering a more informal place to post comments, articles or allow customers to make comments and interact in a forum setting. This can be a controlled environment by the Blog owner.

It is becoming more common to see Blogs and Websites used together or linked together as an extension of one another. Blogs often will be seen higher on a Google search, assisting in name recognition through SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

When building your network and social profile there are two tools that can bring information directly to you, called Google Reader and RSS Feeder. You can signup with Google Reader (a free tool/page) to send articles, links and news feeds to one 'landing' site to have information of direct interest to you in one location without having to search each item. You can also subscribe to the RSS Reader which sends updates from websites or blogs, so you don't have to check a site for changes, they come to you! You can link your RSS Reader to Google Reader.

LinkedIn is used by all types of business professionals including Fortune 500. The site is used to network and connect with others and as a recruiting tool. LinkedIn uses degrees of connection: Your Contacts (1st degree), your contacts connections (2nd degree) and their connections which are (3rd degree) from you.

You can use your connections to assist in a warm introduction or to just view profiles. Another common use of LinkedIn is to learn more about a client or prospective client by viewing their profile. What makes LinkedIn unique is the many features offered along with ability to control all aspects of your profile and settings, and set your privacy levels. It is suggested you "brand" yourself with your profile. Select keywords for your summary to set yourself apart from others, creating a unique on-line personality. Most people use LinkedIn's free profile which allows for plenty of networking and available connections. When linking with someone, contacting them first on your own or through a friend might help in securing the connection and avoiding using your 5 free "Invites to Introductions" which comes with the free account. After the 5 are used you can purchase more but you have unlimited "Invite to Connect."

An interesting note: Be careful who you Invite, there are 3 options when someone receives your invite to connect: Accept, I Don't Know and Ignore. If you get 5 "I Don't Knows" you are blocked from your LinkedIn Account as a "Spammer."

When you create your profile remember: ask for recommendations. It is said by on-line experts that you should average 65 connections on LinkedIn to have an effective profile and 10% should provide a recommendation.

Our 2 Part Collaborative Roundtable brought many new faces including an effective Q&A's of how to create and manage profiles. This was an impressive collaboration of minds to help extend our traditional networking to social networking.

We hope to see you on a social networking site soon!

 (This article was published in The Collaborative Newsletter of the Suburban Chamber of Commerce in Willow Grove, PA. April 9, 2008.)