Friday, August 12, 2005

Does online social networking actually work?

7:31 AM 11 comments


I get invites to LinkedIn all the time. People talk about Friendster like it was God's gift to online social networking.

But do they really work?

There's a great article in Pyschology Today about this...

"An important part of real networking is vouching for somebody who is introduced," explains Heath. "By automatizing that process, you make it less effective." While the sites may speed up connections, the ease of adding "friends" to your online circle makes the quality of those links dubious. The genre is also rife with exploitation and fraud. Some Friendster members claim tens of thousands of "friends"; others devise fake profiles like "Pure Evil." Invitations to join Orkut are already being auctioned on eBay. "All this suggests it's a game people are playing," says Columbia University sociologist Duncan Watts, author of Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age.

LET ME ASK YA THIS...

How have online social networks affected your business and/or personal life?

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
Author/Speaker/That guy with the nametag
www.hellomynameisscott.com

11 comments:

Let me start by saying there is no better interaction than in person. You lose out on so many of the non verbal parts of communication. Now after saying that, I have belonged to LinkedIn for about two months now, and I feel it has helped me with my connections. I am an advertising representative, and have had some replies to LinkedIn requests that I have made to businesses that I feel would be successful in my publication. I mainly use it to offer to contacts I have made at networking functions. I use it to keep in better touch with them, and I use it as a conversation starter the next time I see them. I understand that there are probably some members that use LinkedIn for wrong purposes, and that is one of the reasons I keep my email address private. Only my direct contacts can get my email address. I believe that if used in the proper way, LinkedIn can be useful to my business.

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Hello, I'm from 'da company. I think your success from using LinkedIn depends very much on how you use LinkedIn. Think about your purpose--are you there to reconnect with old colleagues, to keep contact information up-to-date or to be more helpful to the people in your circle?

People have many ways of using LinkedIn--it is absolutely no replacement for in-person contact. To the contrary, I believe that people you meet and chat with at an event are not people you generally know well enough to vouch for when making an introduction (whether on LinkedIn or off-LinkedIn). People I've worked with (a former co-worker, a close business parter or a client) are the kind of people I feel comfortable introducing, and they are the ones who can add value when I seek an introduction to someone they or their contacts know.

I'd encourage you to give LinkedIn a whirl. Many people find it highly enjoyable just to see who your contacts know. But it helps to have a clear purpose and some specific kind of people to search for, whether they are experts, potential clients or business partners. Of course, some people just use LinkedIn to look up people they are about to meet and to see if they know some people in common or to learn more about their backgrounds.

-Konstantin
www.linkedin.com/p/kguericke

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Linked In ...or any such on line service .... is just a tool to help you network (like say, wearing a nametag). It allows you to see whom your contacts know, and then you can figure out the best way to meet those people.

I get invites to link to people who I barely know. I have a rule that I have to have actually had a meal or a drink with a person (one on one conversation) to accept a Linked In request.

I've used online forums and communities to get to know people online for years.

It's really all in how you approach people and with what intent.

There is a lot of satisfaction for me personally involved in the process of getting to know someone and helping them to get what they want.

Because I go to these sorts of communities with a real interest in helping people ... I have an easier time eventually marketing to them or finding win/win ways to work together than folks who go in with tunnel vision about 'what's in it for them'.

In the end, it's all about know, like and trust.

Just my .02,
Andrea
AndreaGoodsaid.com

Scott, some people are using your blog to post ads.

I have been using linkedin for about a year and it has been absolutely NO help. It is definitely used as a GAME.

All those people care about is how many other people they can connect to and not at all about helping others.

I have also been in the yahoo groups about Linkedin and it is obvious that most of them talk about how to get more contacts. I had brought up the idea of actually working with and helping each other and recieved mostly arrogant responses from the frequent posters.

It would be nice to find something like linkedin that catered to self-employed business people because those are the type of people that understand how to use their time efficiently and how to help each other for a goal.

I think most of the people in linkedin now are worker bees and wannabees that have a 9-5 job and nothing better to do with their time except play games and post on the internet.

Stephen
Success in 10 Steps

Great question! It depends on what your definition of "work" is. I use LinkedIn, so let me tell you how I use it and how I define work: If you're using it to meet people you wouldn't otherwise know, then probably it does not work.

If you're trying to share your network with other folks you think could benefit from having someone from your network in their network, then sure it does. It's all permission based, so you don't have to share the contact information of any of your network. I like that, and as one who always seeks to help others first, I encourage others I know to sign up for these social networking sites so they can "see" who I know without too much exposure.

Of course, if a mutually beneficial deal for my 2 friends, I'll share the info. If not, I won't.

Also, I use Plaxo to keep my contacts up to date. Quick, easy and painless way. If only more of my friends would do the same.

While I agree that face-to-face is the best way to build relationships, I've found online networking works extremely well for business. ChicWIT and Company of Friends are two list communities where I'm active. I use them to find new vendors, get feedback on products and services I'm considering buying, post events, help clients find employees and share information. I joined LinkedIN ages ago but it seemed too complicated to pursue...so I didn't. The others are easy to join (no profiles to fill out), easy to scan and very worthwhile.

Since I also have great relationships with two out-of-state clients I've never met, I think it's definitely possible to build relationships online.

On another note..the Wiener's Circle does have the best hot dogs and fries in Chicago!

I actually think I've struck gold with 43 things - It's a goal-oriented site which lets you write entries (basically, blog) about your goals, and your progress. All entries are public, and people with the same goal get listed on that goal's page. Add to this a means of cheering each other on towards greatness, as well as the ability to comment on other people's entries (of course), and there you have a great way for people like myself to meet like-minded people online.

Lately, the makers of 43 things have added 43 places for places you want to go, and 43 people for people you want to meet - you can subscribe to interesting people and put their blogs in as feeds (though only RSS feeds, sadly).

I've taken the liberty to add a placeholder page on 43people.com for you, Scott, which is the way to go about marking people without an account as 'I want to meet this person'. You can go claim it for yourself, and start from there.

Is it useful for my business? Probably not yet, but I've definately gained some distant acquaintances in the last weeks, something I've never really had before.

Dear Scott, thanks for another super article, i just love this site, thanks for the hard work.

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