How do you network?

by Colleen McCarty, VP Talent and Organization Development

Recently my husband was cleaning out his memorabilia and was reminded of an old friend from high school. Nostalgic, he googled his friend, found an email address, and sent his friend an email. Within minutes his email was returned with the message:

“I just facebooked you last week!”*

So have you facebooked anyone lately? And is it business or pleasure?

Personally, I like LinkedIn as I network for business. Apparently that shows my age as the May 2008 issue of Selling Power Magazine suggests that professionals 30 and over prefer LinkedIn while those under 30 prefer FaceBook.  Linked In lets me stay in contact with my professional network. There I can find past and current business associates and stay up-to-date with their professional successes and ever-changing contact information. I can ask questions and leverage their relationships. I can stay in-touch on a professional level. And when I want to stay closer on a personal level I pick up the phone to talk.

How do you use social networking sites to stay in touch?

 

Comments

[Mike Gospe]

This is a great topic for discussion. I, too, set up my LinkedIn account when it first started. It has been a great resource for finding out who is out there; but I must admit I've only used it ocassionally to ask questions or getting specific introductions to folks.

Of more concern is the number of recent requests I've received to join other social networking sites: Spock, Naymz, Facebook, MySpace, and others! There is just not enough time to set up and actively manage a profile in every one. As a result, I've decided to only actively commit to managing one profile, and it's with LinkedIn. Being that my network is mainly with execs (dare I say, folks older than 30), LinkedIn seems to be the best first choice.

Having said that, I'd love to have someone argue with me that I've missed the boat! Has anyone actually benefitted (professionally) from having profiles on multiple social media networks? I'd love to hear about that.

[Catherine]

Mike, I agree also. I can hardly keep up with all the sites and LinkedIn is my more updated profile, although on that I don't do a great job of keeping up either. Is this a generational thing or is it that other people are spending several hours per week networking with other people on the sites?