Does Social Networking Mean Business? October 26, 2007
Posted by geoffwolfe in : Off Topic , add a commentI belong to a discussion group for professional services execs (my former, salaried life) where the latest discussion was about how social networking can be used as a business tool. There is general agreement that LinkedIn is very valuable for networking for jobs and recruits, while the jury is still out about the relevance of Facebook. In fact, most people comment (including the few who actually use both) that there is a distinct line between the functionality of the two. Personal stuff goes on Facebook and that stuff doesn’t belong on LinkedIn. Further comments about the business irrelevance of Facebook center around the tools of trade being cell phones and email (and the merging of them by blackberry et al). There is certainly an effort by some businesses to encourage their workers to use the more “social” of SNs (and the banning by others).
Seems to me that SNs are natural for business since it is all about your “networking” that get sales, hire people, and effectively manage people. I think there can’t be an all encompassing user profile that serves business and personal life (especially since people don’t always want one to know the other), so people will either maintain two “lifes” on two sites or people will have two different profiles on one site. I guess the real winner in SN will be the site that can get people to have both on one.