I am NOT a big fan of FaceBook. Someone really has to come up with a good explanation as to why I ought to move to Facebook. Not those many groups that Jeff has pointed to. Sorry, LinkedIn does not have porn-addicted folks forming their own groups. Sorry that LinkedIn was good enough to expand the network and who asked you to connect to everyone anyways, It can be addictive, there was a question in the Q&A where a MS guy called himself a "connection slut".
You know Jeff, I'll tell you what is happening here:
People ought to be thankful to the connections that they have built in all these years. Go ask yourself, what have you really done to stay "connected". Did you ask questions within our group in the Q&A. did you raise some critical issues about the "visions that you have about internet"? Did you engage your connections in any meaningful discussions?
Now, I am not saying that LinkedIn is all perfect. I think there can be a lot of things they can do to slam the competition. OK lets do a couple of them, and I'll do them from my perspective as a technologist and an entrepreneur:
This is the article that made me write this post.
Once I left, I never looked back. Facebook is great for business networking as well as socializing, and provides a platform for creating networks among like-minded people. There are hundreds if not thousands of groups across a variety of business topics. And joining a business-oriented group and engaging with the community make it easier to establish yourself as a brand and forge networks than relying on a third party to make an introduction to someone you don't know.
You know Jeff, I'll tell you what is happening here:
- Mere boredom: After 500+ of useless connections (you said it yourself and I'm sure the folks who are connected to you feel really "connected" to you now), you are bored. It is the new web age, c'mon! College undergrads do the social networking for 4 years and quit the platform when they get a job or get married!
- Social networking , is it?: Sorry no slutty pics of chicks you can connect to LinkedIn, it ain't a place to show you "family jewels" (ugggh). There are a lot of obnoxious groups, why the heck do you think that companies are closing doors to Facebook.com from work.
- Confused identities at work: Work is a place to work and connect, yes, but employees beware, you might just get fired if you spend too much time out there on that social party networking sites. Employers need to really explain to the folks that it can cause bigger problems to a firm than you can imagine.
- External pressure: Maybe investors are sweating since they have apparently committed themselves to this site.
- Confused about compartmentalization of private and professional activities: Same thing, you can hurt good decent professional engagements by telling or letting others know what you did after the meeting or who you may have met. You can not only you hurt your business, you reputation but also you associates! A great way of going down,yay! and gosh, I don't want people to know what I am doing , when I farted, when I left town and who I am dunking!
People ought to be thankful to the connections that they have built in all these years. Go ask yourself, what have you really done to stay "connected". Did you ask questions within our group in the Q&A. did you raise some critical issues about the "visions that you have about internet"? Did you engage your connections in any meaningful discussions?
Now, I am not saying that LinkedIn is all perfect. I think there can be a lot of things they can do to slam the competition. OK lets do a couple of them, and I'll do them from my perspective as a technologist and an entrepreneur:
- Enhance the site with portlets sensitive to social networking that offer "added value" to the professional networks.
- Allow users to reach out to others by more means that mere Q&A
- Go and let your users go public
- Let users add pics and other professional material (again copyright check etc) like Slides, pictures, videos.
- Allow professionals to earn money on their portals. Money is always a great reason to keep younger professionals (older as well, BTW) attracted.
- Add interactive Q&A: Skype plugin for conferences and video chats.
- Encourage and even form alliances with top 1000 fortune (if possible) employers to hold interviews online with video.
- Encourage users to talk about how LinkedIn has made a great difference to their professional lives, how it helped them get that "dream job". There is no other way to bring the employers and employees closer. Recruiters are good and try to do their best but sometimes employers can also talk that challenge up and let their HR folks go and start picking people up from a professional site like LinkedIn.
This is the article that made me write this post.
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