There is an interesting article in today’s New York Times about LinkedIn, which seems to be making enough money to get $53 million in funding. They seem to have some plans for expanding professional services to firms, rather than following the Facebook / MySpace entertainment and purely social networks.
Having been convinced recently to spend more time using LinkedIn, I cannot say I have been able to leverage it to achieve anything yet. Can anybody share a success they have had due to using LinkedIn, so I can get some ideas how to maximize it?
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I think the biggest issue with LinkedIn is the fact that it’s a mostly passive environment that didn’t get the momentum to bring in more people. Even though Facebook or MySpace are probably not the best sites to recruit or connect professionally, I’m pretty sure they are more effective. Why? Because people enjoy spending time on them and pay more attention to what’s happening.
It doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t exist. I think it’s somewhat useful to show a more professional face. It’s some kind of poster session without having the opportunity to speak with the owner of the poster…
That’s my two cents.
I see this as the beginning of the end of the social networking boom as we’ve seen it. I think the investors and advertisers do not see what is really going to happen. If they are able to raise the funds aligned with their evaluation, I foresee a crash. I could be wrong. I have been before 🙂
@Mathieu
I agree with you about its passivity. That is one of the things I find dull about it; in this regard it is like a CV or resume just sitting out there. Of course with Facebook or MySpace, I find it hard to have something professional there with so many games and plain silliness out there.
@Jen
Why do you think the social network boom is at an end? What, if anything, do you think will take their places?
I think people are realizing they have their own voice and they want to be heard on their own terms. I don’t think they want to put up with confined spaces, forced relationships and UI’s cluttered with advertising. I don’t think social networking is at an end, I think it’s going to change and it’s going to be changed by the people who want to connect, not the corporations that decide how we should connect. I think people are going to realize that they have the power to create, collaborate, connect, publish, and learn on their own terms.
Re. Facebook and MySpace sillyness. I agree that they are somewhat silly. But just like IM in the beginning, I think social rules will emerge, and the network will become useful.
Think of the first time you used IM. People were disrupting you all the time and expecting an answer right away. Then you started saying “Busy, TTYL” and people understood. The same will apply to social networking in my sense. When it’s not going to be new to anyone anymore, it will become a better tool for recruiting. Users will show different faces to different users (friends vs employers).
@Jen
Sounds really good, especially from a grassroots perspective. Short of using something such as Ning, I am not sure how people will be empowered to doing anything on their own in this way. Perhaps that is what is needed; an open social networking application framework such as Ning?
@Mathieu
True; yet I cannot figure out how to use the same application with different public faces. How can this easily be distinguished? I follow you on some of the networks, for example, and I cannot really envision how your different faces may be shown–such as by levels that can be switched on or off? Perhaps this might be interesting to integrate into the Ning-like idea I mentioned above?
I mostly believe that it’s going to evolve that way. Not saying we are there yet. It will all come down to how much contro you will give to users over what is revealed to their “friends”.
If you would have access to a fine-detailed permission scheme for all the stuff you share online, you could create ning-like “faces” in Facebook, depending on who’s watching.
I might be laughing at this entry in some year, but… oh well…
We will keep it archived, then, for ol’ times sake!