Today, social networks have a different objective. It’s not merely about helping you find a date for Saturday night, but rather, more pragmatic, enduring help: a tip-off about a new job or a recommendation to improve your business reputation. A truly practical social network should evolve with you as you grow older and your life becomes more varied, as your interests grow and your contact base diversifies.
To this end, social networks are broadening. In the most telling example, Facebook is no longer a destination solely for university students and recent graduates. It has dropped the requirement of having an “.edu” email address to join, creating a community that includes beer-swilling university students with suit-and-tie CEOs.
Now, every few days, I receive invitations to join the Facebook from my LinkedIn contacts. As a longtime colleague in San Francisco recently scolded me, “Dude, you must get on Facebook. LinkedIn is over.” I am. Now. I already notice the difference with The Facebook crowd. They frequently suggest cool new applications they think I’d be interested in such as an eBay auction price predictor (I haven’t tried it yet, but I plan to), and they tend to update their profile details more readily with wizzy apps.
I don’t agree with my friend that LinkedIn is over. Its network of professionals is an indispensable tool for me as a freelance writer and entrepreneur. Work is referred to me often via LinkedIn contacts.
LinkedIn CEO Dan Nye says the typical social networker of the future will maintain two distinct profiles – one for their professional life and another for their social life. Who knew networking would be so much work? Or, this lucrative?
Find out how to keep your kids as safe as possible while using
online social networks.
Bernhard Warner is a technology reporter based in Rome. He is the former European Internet Correspondent for Reuters and, prior to that was a senior editor at The Industry Standard. His work has appeared in Wired, The Times Online, Time and The Guardian, to name a few. He also works as a Web 2.0 consultant for Custom Communication
Published on 13 June 2007
