Can social networking sites help your business life?

Teens and twentysomethings flock to social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. But what about you—can a social presence in cyberspace help you in the business world? The answer is: maybe.


You may or may not want to post your vacation photos on MySpace, but you can join social networking sites that target executives. LinkedIn is the current category killer, with more than 13 million members. Facebook, once the exclusive domain of college students, has opened up to the general public and is now courting the business community. What do business social networking sites offer? You can build and manage professional relationships, find referrals, promote yourself and seek out capital, customers and partners.

LinkedIn works like this: You join (for free) and create a profile that summarizes your professional accomplishments. Your profile helps you find and be found by former colleagues, clients and partners. You can add more connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you. Ostensibly, your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections and the people they know, linking you to many qualified professionals.

It all sounds very promising, but skeptics pose the following criticisms of business networking sites:


BELIEF: They are social pyramid schemes or the business equivalent of keeping up with the Joneses.

REALITY: You may get “network envy” when you notice that other people’s networks are bigger than yours. “So you start to invite people to join your network to pump up the numbers so you won’t look like a schmuck. Soon others do the same. Now it’s a race,” wrote John Dvorak in a now infamous PC Magazine column. People who worry whether or not they’re on the “A” list are missing the point, according to Mitch Ratcliffe, a technology entrepreneur. “LinkedIn is purposeful networking. You don’t find out someone’s interested in a social cause or anything that’s distracting from what you’re looking for—which is someone to hire, have as a consultant or partner with,” he says. “Many people point to their LinkedIn profile as their résumé, which can be constantly updated and augmented with recommendations from former coworkers, partners or employers.”

Scott Allen, a social networking strategist, notes that some people erroneously extend wholesale invitations to new people on LinkedIn and then don’t understand why their connection requests are turned down. Unlike general social networking sites, LinkedIn is a map of trusted business relationships, Allen says. “These people can endorse me and provide a value-add to the communication. If they couldn’t provide a value-add, there would be no point going through them.” Ratcliffe says that posting his profile on LinkedIn resulted in three or four big projects in the last three years.


BELIEF: You won’t find high-profile, successful people there. “It’s all ‘B’ and ‘C’ list people,” wrote Dvorak in PC Magazine. “Larry Ellison and Hillary Clinton do not have time for this crap.”

REALITY: Rob Koplowitz, a technology analyst at Forrester Research, disagrees, saying that high-profile people do participate in LinkedIn. “Am I likely to get a direct connection to [Oracle CEO] Larry Ellison? Probably not. Could I find a VP at Oracle who knows Larry Ellison well enough to perhaps broker an invitation? Probably…if [I’ve] been around for a while. LinkedIn has connections very high in most organizations.” But a LinkedIn page isn’t for everyone. Recent college graduates often don’t have enough contacts to make it useful, and “If you’ve been the CEO of a Fortune 100 company, you don’t need a LinkedIn page either,” Ratcliffe says. “But the big middle of the marketplace is well served by this.”


BELIEF: There’s no substitute for face-to-face contact.

REALITY: True, but face-to-face interaction is limited to those in close proximity. With LinkedIn, you can maintain relationships with many people across far-flung locations and organizations, including former coworkers, says Koplowitz. “We’re not having lunch, but it’s a far richer relationship than we would have had before this tool.” “This is how you decide where you want to spend your face time,” adds Ratcliffe. “Before agreeing to meet, I can look at a person’s LinkedIn profile to see who they know. It’s a reputation mechanism that I can use and trust.”


BELIEF: People join networks for egotistical reasons, then abandon their listings, essentially becoming “ghosts.”

REALITY: LinkedIn appeals to people who value and leverage relationships, Allen observes, but they may only use it to make or get trusted referrals three or four times a year. People who need paid memberships, he continues, are those who may use it daily, such as recruiters, salespeople, venture capitalists, and so on. (Premium members can contact others directly via an in-site email system.) LinkedIn also allows users to pose questions that are answered by member experts. Why give information away for free? “You can say, ‘I can tell you the answer, but it’s going to cost you,’” Ratcliffe explains. “It’s an opportunity to do some sort of transaction or relationship.” Establishing an expertise may lead to work, says Koplowitz. “Or maybe these people simply want to be recognized as experts within the community.”


BELIEF: I don’t have time to network online.

REALITY: Proponents of networking say that when opportunities present themselves, you’ll be in front of them. Ratcliffe says that posting his profile on LinkedIn resulted in three or four big projects in the last three years. One résumé writer describes finding clients through LinkedIn because she answered questions in the Q&A forum. Though she won’t cold-call, she says, she offers her services to those who post relevant questions on the site. A management consultant says she received a job offer and a client through LinkedIn, but adds, “I have never made a cold call in my life and don’t intend to start. If people need my services, they will get in touch with me.”

A software engineer likens the exposure one receives on LinkedIn to “free advertising.” LinkedIn runs on the concept that people find good jobs through networking and/or referrals. Networking is based on the universal idea of “you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.” As the president of a communications firm puts it: “You must approach networking from a selfless place, directing your energy toward, ‘What can I do to help this person’s business?’ Giving a lead, a contact or your advice will reap you greater amounts than what you gave.”

MORE ON SOCIAL NETWORKING

• Risks of information sharing
• What's coming in the months ahead?
• Popular sites for networkers

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KAREN GOODWIN is a freelance writer in Colorado.