Undocumented Features

Four Values of Social Networking

September 1, 2007 – 6:41 pm

Social Networking is a big thing in the Internet nowadays.  To be honest, until recently, I hadn’t a clue as to why (yes, I do live in a cave).  I know who my friends are.  I know who my colleagues are.  I keep up just fine.  Why do I need these things?  To ‘meet’ people online and create more friends?

 I have succeeded in making friends online before, but generally through chat rooms.  I’m too interactive of a person by nature to manage to make friends just by reading their interests, posting, responding to posts, etc.  To me, the whole social networking venue just didn’t work.

 Finally, though, based on the recommendations of many people that it would help my blog, my career, my life, I would help cure cancer, etc., I joined LinkedIn.  I went in, filled out their data forms, wondering all the while why I was going to share this stuff with strangers.  I looked over my profile.  I clicked around.  I found more things to fill out.  Eventually, I decided it was time to see if I actually knew anyone here, and started trying the search function.

 And then, I learned something.  I learned where past colleagues were that I had lost contact with.  A lot of them.  Some of them were doing insteresting new things.  I got back in touch.  I had lunch with a few.  I learned where more friends and colleagues were.  I learned important things. 

One friend was in management with a big offshoring firm.  I learned a lot of valuable information from him, information that led me to understand that my firm was not ready to offshore, and what steps we would need to take in order to consider it.  From another friend, I discussed his growing pains of transitioning to a new job as a business analyst- and as I thought about it and helped him, it helped me work out key training and processes we were lacking in our company that we needed to help us improve.

As a side effect, of course, it has helped me be better known on the web and promoted my blog- neither one of which hurts at all. Googling myself and actually seeing something about me, not some other Stacey Douglas, on the first page of the results is rather good for the old ego.

The lesson here are many:

1.  Social networking makes catching up with others and keeping up with others easy.

2.  Networking with others in general really is a valuable learning tool- do take the time to do it.

3.  A little self-promotion is good for the ego.  It never hurts.

4. Most importantly, friends are valuable.  I also learned that I had missed out on several marriages, children, happy memories of friends.  Keeping in touch is good for the soul- and we work to have personal lives, not the other way around, right?

Like this post? Buy me a cup of coffee.

Popularity: 10% [?]