Social Networking - Who's Got Time?
I have to admit that a year ago this was my mantra whenever anyone brought up using the proliferation of Social Networking tools that have entered the market. All those invitations on LinkedIn from people I barely knew clogging my inbox. Then we moved to “friends” contacting me on Facebook who I had met only briefly. Then the “tweets” on Twitter from people sharing how they were having coffee with a friend at 10:00am on a Tuesday.
When you are bombarded with all these “distractions” it becomes an annoyance. And then, it takes just one positive experience for the penny to drop. I have to say that now I am now a convert. And, one of the biggest changes I’ve made is how I choose to use these tools versus feeling that I “have” to live on Facebook or respond to everything that comes my way. I have found that what works for me is creating Intention around what I want to accomplish and then finding the right/best tool for that.
As you can tell by the infrequency of my blog, I tend to write when I feel I have something to say. Not exactly what the pundits tell you is the most effective ways of using a blog but it works for me and I’ve stopped feeling guilty about it.
With Linked In, I’ve been able to connect some amazing people who would not have had the chance to meet each other had I not made the connection for them. New job opportunities and funding sources for business were the outcome. Here are some great (brief) tips from Guy Kawasaki on how to make Linked In work more effectively for you. None of them take a lot of time.
On Facebook, through an Advisory Board member, we connected with a great speaker for a conference last year. And, I was contacted by two high school buddies in Canada which, though not business related, did enrich my life to be able to reconnect.
I’m just now starting to use Twitter (you can follow me at fweeceo
) and have found these great resources provided by Nilofer Mercant at Rubicon Consulting who is using Twitter to help people find her business.
As the McKinsey Centered Leadership article points out, women are not great connectors and we need to do a better job of building those weak ties provided by these Social Networking tools.
Still feel you don’t have time or don’t know enough? Just think of one question you have that could be resolved by having a dialogue with others, pick one of the tools out there and give it a try! It’s like learning a new sport, it doesn’t feel like “fun” until you develop a bit of skill at it and you can’t do that without practice.
What’s worked for you in building your skill with Social Networking?
April 12th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
This is a really great article. I’m in the process of creating a blog, but question myself “do I really have the time”. Thus far, I have FaceBook, LinkIn, and other social networking sites all for business purpose only, but I don’t think I am ready to join the Twitter community to network my business. Still searching for some great tips from other.
April 17th, 2009 at 8:23 am
I have found social networking to be invaluable, it all started for me with signing up on Linkedin and over a period of a few months colleagues from all over the world made contact with me. I am amazed that my network is now over 500 just by using this tool in the last year. The benefits have been tremendous in helping other friends get networked and also new opportunities being presented to me. TAKE THE TIME…it is worth it and can be somthing you do once every couple of weeks. What happens from this is you than start finding new social networks that are very valubale as well such as FWE&E and EWGA in my case.
April 21st, 2009 at 4:53 pm
I agree that these sites are most useful when you actively manage your profile, your postings, and to whom you choose to connect. I use LinkedIn for professional networking in the pharma and biotech industry and find the groups are an excellent resource for finding information about employment opportunities. I just started using Facebook, and focus my postings there on promoting my other passion - music. It’s a very efficient way to let my friends know about upcoming performances.
Key to remember is that everything you post is in the public domain, so always think twice before you as much as comment of a friend’s posting - the world is watching!