Let Me Connect You

Jane Cage, COO, HTS

Not too long ago, the phrase "Let me connect you" would have only come from a telephone operator. Today, it's just as likely to come to my inbox as I receive emails from colleagues, business partners, friends and relatives who want to connect to me through one of today's electronic social networking sites. At age 52, this is a new phenomenon for me. On the other hand, teenagers are completely tuned in to this concept - they all have a Myspace or Facebook account. So, does it make sense in the business world? I decided to find out.

Linked in (http://www.linkedin.com) seems to be the business networking site of choice. Linked In has a simple philosophy: Relationships Matter. On their website, they state "Our mission is to help you be more effective in your daily work and open doors to opportunities using the professional relationships you already have." When you join Linked In, you create a profile that summarizes your work and educational accomplishments. The profile helps you to be found by other businesspeople on the site. You can also invite contacts you trust (you must know their email address) to join the site and connect to you. Once you are linked to another person, you are able to see their contacts and ask them to link to you as well. It has the potential to become a giant "Six Degrees of Separation" experiment. When you click on a contact, you can see what links you have in common. From the profile you create, you can also search and be searched on attributes such as industry, keywords, etc. You can even write a "reference" for a contact that is posted for everyone to see. So, how has it worked for me? I have found it useful to link myself not only to colleagues within my industry but also with our clients. One of my links to a client brought a great business opportunity our way when a friend of the client saw my name and company on the clients space, remembered the good things that client had said about me and called me.

Reconnecting has been another benefit of Linked In. I've found old college classmates and business acquaintances with whom I'd lost touch. As of today, I have 212 connections. Two degrees away - friends of friends - that are connected to one of my connections explodes that possible number of connections to 12,200. Who knows who I could find? I've also joined several "groups" that link me to other site users who belong to the same associations that I do. Linked In has also been a good way to keep in touch with friends as they change job and email addresses.

My feedback on Linked In - so far it's thumbs up.

I also joined Facebook. Facebook describes themselves as a "social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn about the people they meet." My shorter translation of that is that Facebook is like a completely personalized National Inquirer about your friends - and the amazing aspect is that everything there is self-published! I haven't seen much business use for Facebook yet but I have seen it as a way to personalize business relationships. When I can look at photo albums published by business colleagues, I learn more about them as a person. I see photos of their children, their vacation and their business trips. The "Status Update" keeps me up with what friends and colleagues are doing. At this moment, I know that one is "furious", another is "back to job hunting again" and a third "loves family dinners." These are small items, I admit, but in a strange electronic way, I feel more connected with them. In a fast paced world with so many demands on our time, Facebook becomes an electronic almost-substitute for coffee pot conversations, quick hellos as we pass and picture postcards.

My feedback on Facebook - thumbs up if you are the kind of person who likes to know what's up with your friends and acquaintances. Social Networking is fast becoming one of the "must-do's" for technology users who don't want to be left behind. Try it and let me know what you think - I'd like to hear your feedback, and maybe even see a few pictures of your kids!