Online Networking

Posted on January 21st, 2008 by Adam in Networking

There are an increasing number of social networking groups available over the internet but there are some issues to consider:

Pros

Enables you to find quality people who may not be familiar with you or your company
Mutual connections help foster relationships and help you to begin with a little more trust and warmth than with a total stranger
Allows you leverage with contacts you already have

Cons

Getting started requires an investment in time to signup, enter your personal information, and add your contacts
If you only have a handful of contacts you will get very little benefit since most systems only search for connections through your existing network
Getting your existing contacts to invest their time to join is not easy

We recommend using the following network services:

http://www.linkedin.com/
Linkedin is an online network of more than 11 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries. A basic account is free and will get you a lot of the useful functionality. Upgrading to a business account will allow you to introduce yourself directly to people outside your network as well as increasing the methods other people can find you.

http://www.ecademy.com/
Ecademy is a Social Network for Business People founded in 1998 now with over 150,000 member profiles worldwide.

Ecademy allows you to add your products and services into its marketplace, which is searchable by all members. Your profile and marketplace entries are automatically included in Google (after a couple of weeks). Optimising your own profile is a fantastic way of getting a first page listing on Google.