So, last time we covered why you should bother with online networking, and now we're going to delve into which online networking site fits you the best. There are thousands of networking sites out there, so we've tried to whittle them down to just the most popular.
The number one factor when you choose which site to use is the kind of people already on the site. Sure, the site may have all the bells and whistles, but if it's full of people you wouldn't touch with a bargepole then perhaps it's not for you. Ask your colleagues in your target industry which sites they use and work from there.
Factor number two is what kind of site it is. Do you want to do business networking or social networking? Be aware that inviting your business colleagues to your social profile can have interesting results to say the least. For example, if you want to maintain your reputation as a staid, buttoned-up bastion of respectability, it's best not to invite your customers and co-workers to see you cavorting around in full Rocky Horror get-up.
Finally, do they offer the right mix of features? If you're bad with faces and names, then having contact's photographs in their profiles may be a killer feature. Likewise, if you're going to be combing through other people's networks, you'll want as much information as possible on their contacts.
So, which are the popular sites out there? Keep reading to find out...
| LinkedIn (Professional networking) |
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LinkedIn is my primary online networking tool, since it offers an excellent invite tool, making it really convenient to send personalised follow-up emails to everyone I meet at an event. The interface is clean and elegant, offering a brief feed of your contacts' actions on the front page, making it easy to see what's new in your social circle. Also, compared to Xing, it offers more details on people you aren't yet connected to, so you can dig into people's profiles and see if they're worth sending a connection request.
Good for: businesspeople from the English-speaking world
Pros: Excellent Q&A section, personalised invite tool is ideal for follow-up emails, Outlook integration, excellent third party support
Cons: No photos, can only share email addresses
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| Xing (Professional networking) |
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Xing, formerly known as OpenBC, is the multilingual choice for business networking. It's broadly the same as LinkedIn, with a few differences. One of the pluses is that you're able to share more contact details, including phone and fax numbers, instant messaging and so on, and you can decide which of your contacts gets which pieces of information. It also offers photos in profiles, a real boon if you get stuck on names and faces or have a large network. Unfortunately it requires a premium account to find out even basic information about people you're not connected to, and suffers from a bad interface, hiding it's personalised invite tool behind the address book tab.
Good for: finding businesspeople from the non-English-speaking world
Pros: Multi-lingual, organise offline events in Shanghai, photos, able to share more contact details, search agents
Cons: Cluttered front page, have to buy premium account to find out even basic information about people you aren't connected to, less comprehensive profile pages
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| Facebook (Social networking) |
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Facebook is the current social networking site du jour, and it's easy to see why. It's number one feature is the friends feed, letting you see at a glance what all of your friends' are up to -- an ideal way to keep up-to-date with your network. It's also recently opened up the door to small "applications" -- letting you add new features to your Facebook profile, like supporting worthwhile causes, adding extra profile information or biting people and making them into zombies. LinkedIn has created a jobs application, but other business tools are pretty thin on the ground. Expect this to change with time however, since the application database is growing quickly.
Good for: keeping up-to-date with what your network is doing
Pros: Simple interface, friends feed, open to third party applications, great for finding out about events
Cons: Clutters up your email inbox with notifications, addictive, got to be careful mixing up professional and social lives, not many good third-party apps yet
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| MySpace (Social networking) |
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Do you want to make your eyes bleed and/or have epileptic fits? MySpace is just the place for you. It was the first social networking site to make the news and is still the biggest out there. It's main strength is also it's main weakness: User profiles can be customised to the Nth degree, which sounds good in theory but in practice most of the audience are high-school students who think black text on a black background makes for fun reading. On the plus side, (yes, it does have one) it's useful for finding new and interesting bands.
Good for: making your eyes bleed, looking for high-school students and other teenagers, finding new bands
Pros: You have complete control over your profile, making it totally reflect your personality, good for finding music
Cons: Others have complete control over their profiles, hard work to find out what's new in your social circle, a lot of friend invites from "lonely Russian models" looking for "friends"
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Which social and professional networking sites do you use, and what do you think of them? Leave a note in the comments to let us know!
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