Wed 7 Nov 2007
Look Who's on Facebook!
Posted by jtmcarthur under Communities, Startups, Technology
1 Comment
I was an early user of online business-networking sites, but have until recently avoided the social-networking sites. So what exactly would induce a 50-something, former storage analyst to join Facebook? To hang out with some storage geeks, of course. Turns out there are several storage-related groups on Facebook. Here are a couple:
- Storage Gurus, which includes members like Steve Terlizzi and Joel Reich
- Fans of High End Storage, which includes members like Barry Burke, Marc Farley, Steve Kenniston, Dave Vellante, and Roland Bavington
The names are pretty familiar to those of us who have been around the storage industry. What surprised me most about joining Facebook was to see who else was already there. Sure, I found the storage geeks. But I also found some stoggier investor types and business executives mixed in with the edgier and younger folks I expected to find. Finding my 20-something nephews in Facebook was not a surprise.
As I’ve declared several times, I’m a fan of business networking sites, in part because I occasionally need the aid of a memory prosthesis. It’s also a great way for me to help people I’ve worked with in the past. I continue to use LinkedIn a lot. The advantage of LinkedIn is that, as long as the user maintains their profile, I can get an answer to that nagging question, “I know your name, but where exactly did we meet?” without asking the embarrassing question, “And I would know you from where?” LinkedIn also offers a great way to figure out who I know at a particular company. Just as importantly, LinkedIn helps me connect with people who have left a company or who worked with someone that I’m going to be meeting with. Because sometimes, I want to get “the rest of the story.”
While the biography that most LinkedIn users complete is helpful, sometimes I need that visual-memory prompt, too. Now that LinkedIn allows the uploading of photos (or more accurately a single head-shot photo – business attire preferred), it should make things that much easier. I really appreciate the photos. And with more than 900 connections, I’m not likely to switch off of LinkedIn. But I will augment it with other tools. In addition to Facebook, I’ve recently received a growing number of invitations from members of Plaxo. So here are my questions:
- Do you use a business networking site?
- Which networking sites do you use?
- What’s the primary reason you use them?
- Do you think the social networking sites like Facebook will ultimately supplant the business networking sites?
- If so, why?
OK, this isn’t a formal research study, but I would like to hear your opinions. Oh, and the real reason I decided to join Facebook? I decided I’d better figure this out before my boys become teenagers.
Nobody dare to ignore social networking anymore these days. They are not night clubs, or at least if some of them are night clubs and out of business in a few years, the industry is thriving, taking more and more eyeballs and minutes (and money) away from traditional media.
Having worked in Microsoft online business for a couple of years, seeing how we are late in the game again and now are trying really hard to breakthrough social networking, I believe social networking is changing people’s life, and you can’t escape from it any more. We see SN sites are taking away time that people used to spent on email or IM. The concept for social networking is evolving too. Many of today’s communication vechicles such as email and IM are implemented into social networking sites. Currently most people are using a couple of SN sites, for different purposes. I believe many of us will maintain multiple SN sites and use them with different circles of friends, just like the way we are using email today. Maybe someday we will have a dashboard to see everything related to ME in one place just to keep my life a little bit easier. Who knows?