Professional Networking Sites

I asked the following question to my connections on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter:

What's your favorite professional networking site/app and why?

Here's a smattering of responses:

"Personally, it's LinkedIn. Easy to use and very robust. Next would be Facebook, due to it's extensive reach."Jay Waddell, via LinkedIn

"LinkedIn seems to be the most useful site from a professional standpoint. I like it because (so far) it doesn't have many distractions from establishing a real-life network. Then again, I think I've met more people in my field via Twitter lately than I ever met via other social media apps. Twitter does a great job of helping you expand your network and it facilitates face-to-face meetings better than any other medium." Celeste Lindell, via Facebook

"I see Twitter as my social/conversational platform, and keep Facebook exclusively for business." Rick Murray, via Twitter

"I prefer Twitter because through micro conversation I find that it is a terrific relationship building tool. And, after all, what is networking if it is not relationship building." Kim Dushinski, via LinkedIn

"My favorite professional app is LinkedIn. I have connected with those who are in the industry I want to be someday: social media" Mark V via Twitter

"Although it's intended purpose is not professional networking, Twitter has been, by far, my favorite and most effective site. Twitter is one of the only social networking site that I use professionally, or in any capacity for that matter, that consistently drives online relationships to offline ones and elevates those professional relationships I already have..."
Ben Grossman, via LinkedIn

"...However, I think I might give another perspective here, my blog is my favorite professional networking site. Although the blog is my personal business blog, and is not connected through a social networking system. Though I do have mybloglog. I think my blog has built and maintained more professional relationships than any other networking site. The biggest reason is that I put more effort into my blog than most of the other networking sites I'm a member of. So I'd suggest that the best networking sites for people are often those where you spend the most time and effort." John Cass, via LinkedIn

"i use only linkedin; more of a least disliked than a favorite..." Pete Thomas via Twitter

"I use Plaxo and LinkedIn and I've also signed up for Naymz. LinkedIn is still my favorite because more people seem to use it. I like thinking about this in terms of Metcalf's law - a value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users on the system. Professional networking sites have utility because they enable you to connect with others and thus far, more people get in touch with me via linkedin than any other professional network I use..." Simon Kuo, via LinkedIn

"I'd say linkedin is my fav @zenaweist. I've both made contacts and reconnected with a lot of long lost ones." Jon Hand, via Twitter

"My favourite professional networking site is the Ask Liz Ryan Group, an online networking group with 25,000+ members, run by HR guru Liz Ryan. The group, is an amazing resource that provides a forum for both personal and professional support. No matter what the question -- health issues, career development, travel advice, negotiation skills -- the Ask Liz Ryan community is there to respond." Amrita Chandra, via LinkedIn

"LinkedIn for professional relationships; facebook for combination of fun, friends and some business; twitter real time interactn" Bill Miller, via Twitter

"Personally, I use all three (Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook). Twitter is great for establishing and growing relationships, is fast, and extremely easy to use yet is somewhat limited by its 140 characters. LinkedIn provides depth and background information, and Facebook acts as a great rolodex since it contains contact info and other "CRM" type data. Roll them all together and you have a great system." Warren Sukernek, LinkedIn

See all answers that came in through LinkedIn, here.

Here's a few articles/posts that provide basic tips on social and professional networks:

Write Your LinkedIn Profile For Your Future, Chris Brogan
The Social Network as a Career Safety Net, New York Times
Top Professional Network Comparison, Be Networked
Why You Should Join, CIO
Tips on Using Networking Sites, Washington Post
Top Ten Ways To Use LinkedIn, Guy Kawasaki

Thanks to everyone for responding so quickly! Please keep the discussion going via comments through twitter, linkedin or facebook.

Good People Day - April 3

Gary Vaynerchuk, to me @garyvee, is requesting we all get together and chat up the good people in our lives. Watch Gary's video for details.

Pay homage to those that have helped you, the truly good peeps. Take time to reflect on Thursday, April 3rd and say thanks publicly to the good folks in your life via your blog, twitter, facebook profile, pounce, emails, or even IRL (novel idea)... however you want - just communicate out there so the good vibe keeps rolling...think about it, wow what a ripple effect YOU could cause.

The idea of everyone online (even those in the media) talking about good people that do amazing things just because they truly want to help people, instead of sensationalizing, bitching, gossiping, and spreading rumors - even if that could last 1 hour...it would be a wonderous, refreshing moment my friends. Let's take part!

Out with the bad juju and in with appreciation and goodwill!

GPD08 on!

Twitter 101

My friends, you've been asking for a simple explanation on the ins and outs of Twitter. Here it is. Lee Lefever's quick and easy viddie walks you through the Twitter basics:



Before you hop on Twitter and take it for a spin, check out this great how-to: Newbie's guide to Twitter.

Follow Lee on twitter: @leelefever
Follow me on twitter: @zenaweist

Twitterers: How old are you?

3/5 UPDATE: The average Twitter age is 37 with 150 responders.

I've been asking twitterers, people that microblog on Twitter.com, to tell me their age. The Twitterverse has been very patient as I've been asking "how old are you?" over and over on Twitter for the last 24 hours.

Why am I asking? Why are twitterers retweeting, aka reposting, the question to their Twitter followers/friends? It started yesterday afternoon.

I was in a qualitative research readout meeting. I, of course, can't give any research specifics as it's a closed project. Thanks for understanding.

We were discussing questions regarding online communications. I voiced my surprise that Twitter wasn't mentioned by any of the participants. The reply was something along the lines of "Twitter is for the young that it takes someone young to get it."

Having turned 40 this year and being an avid twitterer, I was a little taken aback by the youth comment, but heck, I didn't have any Twitter demographic stats. I posted a tweet about my surprise and my friend @kimdushinski responded:



So I posed the question, asked people to retweet it, kept posing it. And the ages rolled in.

Currently, the average Twitter age is 37 with 120 responders.

The youngest age reported so far is 14 and the oldest is 68.

Of course this is just an informal poll, with mostly my followers/friends responding. I know it's not scientific and it's self-reported, but my gut is telling me twitter's average age is in the mid-30s. Several twitterers that direct messaged me agree. Would love your thoughts @ev on twitter's average age.

And the unexpected benefit of asking a question to the twitterverse - new followers. What a wonderful surprise! Thanks to all my new friends for sharing your age with me and helping me out without knowing me. I'm looking forward to staying connected.

Thanks so much to all my Twitter friends that spread the word. A few that are top of mind are @warrenss, @chrisbrogan, @rickmurray, @jeffisageek, @conniereece, @creativesage, @pistachio and @linuxchic - I know I'm leaving out so many - Merci, merci, merci!

I'm going to continue to update the stat as more people send me their age. I'm not going to close the poll, there's no reason to, though I promise not to ask the question again :).

I'm keep you all posted through Twitter. I think we all are microblogging more than blogging these days anyway. More to come - thanks again!

Community sourcing taking crowd sourcing up a notch

I hear the term crowd sourcing quite a bit when people are talking about social networking experiences. I picture a cattle call when I think of the term crowd sourcing. In my mind, it's an open call out to the masses hoping to get some expert thought on an issue. A shotgun approach. Though it has it's place and can be valuable, to me, it's a sterile, faceless term.

When thinking about the discussions that occur in social networks, when topics are thrown up for discussion on a blog or microblog, crowd sourcing just doesn't give justice to the expertise, kinship, and heart that is woven into the conversation. I have experienced several crowd sourcing events in the online socnet space that are taken up a notch to community sourcing.

I picture a table of friends discussing a topic of interest when I think of community sourcing. Warren Sukernek, @warrennss, helped me with the following community sourcing defintion:

Community sourcing is taking crowd sourcing to the next level: Outsourcing a task to a connected group of people for the benefit of that group.

Thoughts?

iSuperBowl

Along with 97 million other people, I watched the Super Bowl last Sunday evening. Along with over 200 other people, I tweeted during the Super Bowl about the game and of course the ads.

On the Friday before the Super Bowl, Robert Rosenthal invited all members of the facebook group, What I Saw at the Direct Marketing Revolution,
to join him on Twitter to comment about the game.

Our family had opted out of Super Bowl parties this year, so Rosenthal's invite was a great way for my family to be part of a virtual party and still squeeze in toddler baths, homework and make little one's bedtimes.

So a little before kick-off, I logged into Twitter and saw this tweet from Jeremiah Owyang:



Jeremiah created an easy ad critic rating system and dubbed his experiment “the twitterbowl”.

So my family and I found ourselves evaluating ads on a 1-5 scale. Our kids took turns sitting in my lap or near me watching the Super Bowl conversation unfold on twitter.com. Our 4 yr old asked me to change my twitter profile picture from “a cartoon” (an avatar) to “real” (a photograph.) I’d read them comments and we’d debate other people’s ratings.



I was truly surprised with how engaged I stayed with the twitterbowl. I didn’t venture off, multi-task online (do bills, catch up on email, etc.) as I thought I would. I was glued to the twitterbowl and occasionally looking up at the TV to check out the game and watch the ads. Occasionally, I’d venture to the URL posted with the ad, such as Tide’s mytalkingstain.com (Loved it!), but everything I did online during the game was about the game. For someone with adult ADD, this is a feat.

As posts came in literally seconds apart, I was amazed at the variance in ranking. Commercials I loved, others absolutely hated. Also, during halftime as I was doing laundry, helping kiddos with baths, etc, I carried my mobile phone with me to keep tabs on the twitterati pulse via m.twitter.com on the half time entertainment and ads.

The reason I titled this iSuperBowl is because, this was the most interactive Super Bowl I’ve experienced. Where the pulse was immediate, compelling and twitterati controlled. Of course, I went to the Super Bowl spot’s microsites when there was a call-to-action (did I say how much I loved Tide's ;>); however the true online buzz, from my perspective, was pure community commentary – again another example of
community sourcing, twitterati-style.



To view the results of Jeremiah’s experiment, please see his recap post.

Follow me on Twitter, twitter.com/zenaweist.

Monologue blogging - yawn

Here's a few examples of monologuing:

1) Blogging without allowing comments. I'm really surprised at how often I come across a blog where comments aren't accepted. Not just corporate blogs but individuals.

2) Blogging, allowing comments, then not responding. So you don't join the conversation, you don't close the loop. You're dissin' your prospects, consumers, prosumers, colleagues, friends - your audience. This blatant sign of disrespect reminds me of the person behind the counter at a retail store that keeps answering the phone instead of waiting on the line of people wanting to actually buy something.

3) Microblogging - say twitter, for example - with lots of followers but following no one. So you are shouting out from your palpit - news your followers couldn't live without - but you aren't joining in on the conversation, you aren't experiencing the vibe to follow where the conversation is. You are interrupting. You are cutting into the fluid conversation and believe me, it's noticed and frowned upon.

4) Microblogging with lots of followers but only follow a few elite industry peers. You are again snubbing your customers. You can't engage if you don't know the pulse.

5) You have a profile on a Social Network Site but the only time you do anything with it is to accept a friend request or check the SNS email. Why are you wasting your time on it? Unless you are actively engaged you aren't going to experience the social aspects of the medium.

There's bloggers like me, we appear to be monologuing because, heck there's not that many comments on our blog. I don't take it personally - some of my posts are only relevant to me. Also, I know it's hard to move from a lurker to a commenter. It took my over 3 years to post my first blog comment, even after I had been a newsgroup junky in the '90s. Sigh, I think I'm just a lurker by nature.

I do know people are reading this blog. My proof? Well, I have Google Analytics so there's some traffic viewing posts. There are a few comments on the blog. Others reach out to me on twitter, facebook or email me directly. I'm very ok with that. I'm looking forward to more comments so the conversation on each topic continues. I guess my point is, I'm not trying to only monologue :).

I've talked with other novice bloggers and we're figuring it out the dialogue recipe as we go. The fact of the matter is we are all branching out. We are all actively engaged in microblogs and commenting on other's blogs. We are hooked in and enjoying being part of the conversation.

A microblogging friend asked me why I started my own blog. And given that laundry and school lunches call, that will be the topic of my next post.

Scoble's profile off Facebook - well, for about a day

Scoble's explanation of his PLAXO test.

Update: Facebook has turned Scoble's profile back on. PLAXO's POV from Jeremiah's post.

Social networking for social good

I admit it. I'm a feel good person. I truly believe that when I'm doing good for others, it comes back 100 fold to me. Maybe that's why I'm so enamored with social networking and all the helping voices, hands and hearts I've come across.

I feel extremely lucky to have come into contact with social media mavens that are rocking the social networking scene for social good. There's Beth Dunn, @santaclaus - aka the Provident Partner Elves, Michael Ben-Nes, Chris Brogan, Nate Ritter, Beth Kanter, and Michele Martin - just to name a powerful few.

Chris Brogan is providing 100 useful blog tips - 1 topic a day. There's actually several pointers with each post.

Beth Kanter's blog provides tips for non-profit neophytes to experts on using social media.

Today, I added the Sharing Foundation widget to my blog's sidebar. Beth Kanter and Michele Martin have teamed up to raise funds for the Sharing Foundation in the America's Giving Challenge.

As Michele explains, "The top 8 individuals with the most unique donors for their cause will win $50,000 EACH, while 100 charities will be awarded $1,000 based on the number of donations they receive through the Challenge. The minimum donation of $10 can buy a young Cambodian student a school uniform (so he/she can go to school) and a month's worth of English lessons in the Sharing Foundation's ESL program."

Consider donating $10 to the Sharing Foundation, if you can't donate - please consider passing this message on to others.

Jeremiah's post: Defining Online Community

As I have become more entrenched in social media over the last few months, I have experienced some fairly impressive social networking moments. Most of events have been wide-sweeping with major buzz to boot, others have been...I guess what you would call little online whispers - very little conversations but the content is extremely important to me.

Some of my non-work related social networking highlights include: receiving an endearing "pay it forward" compliment on facebook; being part of Beth Kanter's amazing efforts with the help of Chris Brogan to raise enough money ($10/contributor) within 24 hours to send a Cambodian woman, Leng Sopharath, to college; helping the fight against breast cancer through Frozen Pea Fridays: experiencing bumrushing the charts for Joseph Jaffe's Join The Conversation; having my nieces and nephew choose to friend me on MySpace and Facebook, being interviewed by Kim Dushinski for her soon-to-be released mobile marketing book; and, yet another moment today with Jeremiah.

This morning Jeremiah set out to define "online community" through a posting on his Web Strategy blog, followed up with twitter dialogue and blog conversation. He is asking the community to hone in on its self-defined term until the definiton "online community" melds into that which it is...real-time.

Community sourcing at its finest.

I'm looking forward to this community-made and endorsed "online community" definition to be posted on wikipedia.

Social Media Buzzwords and Twitter WOM

Ah, it's days like today that make me so happy to be part of the everchanging social media landscape.

This morning through Pete Blackshaw's Facebook group, Consumer-Generated Media, Pete directed me to his ClickZ article, "Official 2008 Buzzword Forecast."

Pete is a passionate, enthusiastic speaker; a cutting-edge marketer; and, IMHO a social media guru. He calls it like he sees it (and 9 out of 10 times, he nails the trend at hand) and he is personable, meaning he let's people in - so he's authentic regarding work, play and family.

Yep, and there's no kick back for me on this...I only know Pete through webinars, his blogs, and facebook. I'm touting him only because his blog is relevant to my work and he writes relevant, conversational posts in a way that helps me educate through out my organization without overwhelming.

Anyway, Pete's Buzzword Forecast is a must read and share. He has a pulse on socnet subjects marketers are dealing with, terms we will be using and his defensive brand strategies are spot on.

And another great post of Pete's is his post on Peter Kim's Top 20 Marketing Blogs.

And here's the other 12/11 social media occurrence that I had to write about, Jeremiah Owyang's post on Twitter. Jeremiah's current gig is a Forrester senior analyst and he is best known for his blog, Web Strategist.

In his blog post today, Jeremiah talks about the changes he is experiencing with Twitter. Those that follow me know I'm all about this microblogging utility. Twitter has changed the way I consume media as with many others as well.



Jeremiah tweeted about his post and low and behold, look how many people have commented. Over 200 the last time I checked. It appears his post is so popular his host server is down at this time. Twitter is lagging today as well, maybe it has to do with the Jeremiah buzz as well. WOM is going strong on Twitter today.

On Twitter:
Follow Pete Blackshaw: http://www.twitter.com/pblackshaw
Follow Jeremiah Owyang: http://www.twitter.com/jowyang
Follow me: http://www.twitter.com/zenaweist

Facebook is now living in the reality of our opt-in world

So I'm reading Mark Zuckerberg's Beacon apology on the Facebook blog today and I unconsciously start humming Madonna's Material World. And my inner voice is singing - "We are living in a opt-in world and I am an opt-in girl. You know that we are..." and for those of you that know me - yep, even my inner voice is singing it off tune.

Anyway, I'm surprised that the up-and-coming, over-buzzed, media-darling, "we are grassroots", all about community Social Networking Site (SNS) didn't get from the get that communities live in an opt-in world and we *all* are opt-in girls - well, people. (sigh)

Seriously, how could there not be an uproar over constantly having to opt-out? That's so first days of email campaigns logic - faulty, slimy logic.

I wonder if Facebook did any user acceptance testing with Beacon? Not in the UI but in the actual concept down to opting out with every action. Are they that removed from the conversation pulse that they would need to do testing to know how wrong opt-out is? I'm a little stumped over the rush to market and the lack of common sense.

Lesson here: Don't lose sight of what got you to where you are.

There's good news, Zuckerberg did respond (finally) and admitted Facebook's mistakes over the last several weeks with Beacon. Yep, they changed their tune...Facebook is realizing they to are living in an opt-in world.

Inbox 2.0

I've been mulling over some posts about Inbox 2.0.

Is what Yahoo and Google are delving into really the next evolution in social networking sites? I might be simplifying it but to me, everything I've seen shows me more of a LinkedIn management functionality with all the mail components we are used to seeing but crystalized - kinda like going from standard tube to HDTV.

The Google and Yahoos of the world are creating a way to help us manage our social media tool kits. I don't know that their Inbox 2.0 will meld into trumping social networking sites per se.

I have my social media tools that help me manage and optimmize my relationships, however there's more to SNS. There's the networks, groups, apps (some useful, some fun, some random.) There's the reaching out to friends of friends through various activities on SNS. There's the ah-ha stumbling upon information that you come across while catching up with your friends' lives through their profiles.

With that said, there's the contextual tracking part that gives me the weebie jeebies in a small way. Do I want information gathered on the email context of every message I receive? Do I want advertising shown to me, contact possibilities given to me from the information that comes through my email? If I'm getting my email app and storage for free - well maybe. As long as I can decide the parameters and can opt-in to the behavorial targeting options - well maybe.

I'm looking forward to the mesh up montage that allows me to have my social media tool kit in one place, provides me with the technology to fine tune it and keep the information I want to stay personal - actually personal - not having to opt-out to keep it personal.

Here's a few Inbox 2.0 articles:
Deva from Email Dashboard provides food for email thought
Brian Solis' Inbox 2.0 strategies post
Techcrunch Mike Butcher's Inbox 2.0 post.

Lots of discussion going on. We'll see how it pans out.

Blog 101 - Lee Lefever style

Lee's latest "how-to" video tells a simple and concise story of why and how people blog:


Check out all of Lee's videos on his YouTube page or through his company's site Common Craft.

Social Media Snack Done Right

I follow some social media strategist on Twitter as their tweets typically provide snippets of industry commentary. These 140 character cliff notes help me quickly shift through the vast about of social media information out there and find what's relevant to me - *right* now.

This morning, it was Jeremiah Owyang's tweet that caught my eye:




The middle tweet in particular, given that I'm in web marketing. I clicked on the link to Jeremiah's blog and proceeded to read the specific posts that he recommended.

It was quick, simple and really h e l p f u l.

Joseph Jaffe uses social media to practice what he preaches

Ok, this post is very late in coming and I apologize, I've just been absorbing other people's thoughts on Joseph Jaffe's crowd-sourcing, social media extravaganza.

You haven't heard the bumrush buzz? Read on...

I am a Facebook friend of Joseph Jaffe, part of his Jaffe Juice group on Facebook, read his blog, as well as follow him on Twitter. Yep, I'm a Jaffe Juice Junkie :).

Joseph invited me along with several other folks to join him in his "Bumrush the Charts" social media PR event.

Jaffe asked people to participate in a monumental event - purchase his latest book, Join The Conversation, on Sunday, 10/21 via amazon.com and help him break the Amazon.com Top 10.

Jim Tobin provides a great recap of Joseph's PR 2.0 tactics.

Joseph incorporated the social media elements he discusses in this book to sell it. It was an incredible event to experience.

Yes, I bought the book, see below in true socnet etiquette, Jaffe thanks me at 2:15pm:


and when will my name ever appear before Karl Long's again? Seriously, very nice touch, Joe!

And I'm over halfway through the book and using nuggets everyday in my current role, more to come...

Twitter - get it across in 140 characters or less

You ask a question on Twitter and you get a plethora of answers.

They are quick snippets refined to the gist of the point.

For instance, check out Chris Brogan's tweet from earlier this morning:



And look at the creative, across-the-board responses he got.

And critics say there's no conversation with Twitter. It's extremely interactive. Jump into the twitterati. Start by following me at zenaweist.

Lil'Grams - parent-style microblogging

Brian Solis blogged about the "twitter for parents" - Lil'Grams. The founder, Greg Narain, describes Lil'Grams as my memories, my way.

As a parent of 4 little ones, I'm looking forward to testing Lil'Grams, out because I need some place to brag and document about my kiddos that's easy to get to, shift through, and share. And can I tell you, I have all the scrapbooking supplies but do not have the time to keep up with all that. This looks promising, more later.

The Second Bubble? Go ahead, burst it.

I was talking with a friend of mine last week about my concern for the second bubble. All this hype, all this over-evaluation - it reminds me of 2000. It depresses me a little, because I know the utility is here, the tipping point has passed and this isn't just buzz - it's here to stay.

And we are smarter, less impatient, less risky...we've learned from the last go 'round, right?!

Then I read Steve Rubel's twitter a few moments ago:

Rant: The Web 2.0 World is Skunk Drunk on its Own Kool Aid http://tinyurl.com/ytaeyz

And at first, that ugh! feeling in the pit of my stomach started...but I kept with his thoughts - thankfully. His post helped get my hopeful back on.

The quick buck folks will come and go - they flock to socnet sites today, mash-up opportunities tomorrow, but there are some sustaining stars that continue to make the web a better place, regardless of cashflow potential - thankfully.

The passionistas are a constant and you know what?

It's gonna be all right.

10/30 UPDATE
More Bubble talk New York Magazine fashion from John Heilemann.

Social Networking 101

Ok, as I try to explain social networking to my offline friends, it's easier to just show them with something they are interested in that's on a socnet site - then it clicks for them.

However, I always start with showing them Lee LeFever's "Social Networking in Plain English" easy-to-understand quick video:


All of LeFever's social media videos on YouTube are very informative, quick and stand up to his claim - Explanations in Plain English. Lee and Sachi have crafted an amazing company called Common Craft and their blog is worth subscribing to - plum full of great brain food.