Deconstructing the business social network

Written by Bernard Lunn / November 20, 2007

I am the wrong age for Facebook or MySpace. But I happen to have a relative who is in the LA music scene, who gave me a tour from his perspective - and now I totally get it. A few decades ago that is where I would have hung out.

I am not looking for a social network. I cannot imagine choosing one single place as my only online hangout and I certainly don’t want the hassle of managing my identity and my relationships on multiple sites. However I am interested in how different tools give different pieces of the social networking puzzle; and what ties them together.

When I wrote about LinkedIn compared to Facebook, some Facebook enthusiasts pointed out that messaging within Facebook is better. I think that is true, but I don’t want to use messaging that is controlled by a site - and I think that is true for most people who grew up with the Internet before social networks evolved. It may be nothing more than habit, but habit matters a lot for adoption.

Forward/Share This Article With Colleagues And Social Media:

Deconstructing the business social network

LinkedIn and The Future of Business Networking

from Bernard Lunn's
blog Read/WriteWeb

LinkedIn has definitely been useful for me. It is not a silver bullet, but when used with respect for real world relationships it has served one very important purpose - I can meet my objectives with the minimum of intrusion on my contacts. I can search for the contacts/companies that I want to reach and find who has a relationship and ping them for help.

This is far more efficient than spamming all my contacts with a mass email saying “anybody know anybody in this role at these companies?” That would probably get a quick response but would rapidly deplete my 'relationship capital'. It is also more effective than guessing who would have the right contacts. In LinkedIn I have been constantly surprised by contacts that I would never have guessed would be useful.

Forward/Share This Article With Colleagues And Social Media:

LinkedIn and The Future of Business Networking