Professional Networking: Just for Fun or Part of Your Job Or Combination? Tips for managing multi-memberships in social networks?

Source: Facebook vs LinkedIn Traffic

The illustration above shows the overlap between people who use LinkedIn and Facebook.  What initially caught my eye was the demographic (age analysis) of LinkedIn VS Facebook users.  We know that  professional relationships are moving from the Rolodex to the social networks.  LinkedIn is designed for specifically for business professional networking, while Facebook is a bit more casual.  Yet, I do professional networking on Facebook and I'm noticing a number of colleagues are too.

While the demographics of Facebook are younger compared to LinkedIn, the Compete analysis shows that Facebook users are maturing.   In June of 2007, nearly over 35% of Facebook traffic came the 18-24 year old segment, compared to around 22% in June 2008.

Meanwhile my colleagues in education and communities of practice (Browyn Stuckey, Jeffrey Keefer, and others) hosted an online conference about Managing Multi Memberships in Social Networks.  I had wanted to participate, but my crazy travel schedule quickly made that goal unrealistic.  So,  I'm learning third hand through looking at the materials.

They started with a survey to examine people's experience using social networks.   There are two terrific refleciton questions which caught my eye:

1.  How do you use social networks?

just for fun
part of my degree work
personal learning (optional)   
professional development (required)
part of my job

2.  Which phrases best describe how you feel when coping with multi membership in your online networks?

drowning, feeling like quitting something
roller coaster, sometimes fun to look forward to, sometimes just anxiously holding on
situation under control, have strategies to manage
guilty that I am not more active in all my communities

They used discussion thread to discuss the issue:

This brings me Tony Karrer who has several posts about networking on  LinkedIn (and Twitter and Facebook) and friending policies:

I used to heed the advice that you should only connect with people who you know pretty well. And that's the way I've operated. However, that never seemed to work all that well, and I think I've figure it out.

I listened to a podcast that featured Christian Mayaud in which he described PAN CAN FAN.

An individual's social network (online or offline) is divided into three groups:

• PANs = Potentially Active Network
• CANs = Currently Active Network
• FANs = Formerly Active Network

The "CAN" and "FAN" are people you know pretty well.  The "PAN" are people you may know superficially.

I now think of my LinkedIn direct connections as also containing PANs who I only know in a superficial way. I've changed where I'm willing to link to anyone who I feel may be a good person to know in the future based on their profile and possibly a limited messaging exchange. This is more in line with what people call a LinkedIn LION (LinkedIn Open Networker). I'm not sure I'm quite going as far as most LIONs who seem to link with everyone. But, I've certainly changed to be very open to linking even if I don't really "know" you.

This is a good way to think about your network and as Tony suggests you may not want to link to everyone.  And you may have different approaches on networks.  Not too long ago, Charlene Li wrote about professional networking tips including friending policies if you are using these tools to support or enhance a professional network.   It made me think that I have slightly different approaches on different spaces. 

Facebook:  I will immediately approve a friend request on Facebook if I recognize them or know or have recently met them.  "CAN or FAN" as Tony describes above.   But, if someone I don't immediately recognize requests to be friends - then I will ask them why they want to be friends - time permitting.  What has been happening lately - because I get so many request s - I end up ignoring them.    If someone sends a personal message with some context about why they want to be friends, then I will friend them.  This inspired me to put a friending policy on my limited profile.

Twitter: My updates are unlocked.  This is my "loosest" network. 

LinkedIn:   I treat LinkedIn as my rolodex and tend to friend people who I know or have met.  I tend to use LinkedIn quite to network through my contacts to find people I'm specifically looking for.  Tony's post is making reconsider that.

Other posts

• Is A Social Media Friend Really A Friend? by Mark Dykeman
• How I Think About My Social Networks by Scott Monty
• No, I'm Not Ignoring You by Scott Monty
• Social Media Etiquette by Chris Brogan
• Can Facebook Replace Face to Face by Social Citizen Blog

How do you use social networking for professional networking?  Is it a part of your job or optional?  Do you have different networking strategies across networks?  How do you manage your mulit-memberships without going crazy?  What are your tips?

Comments

[Jean Russell]

I just discovered Peoplebrowsr. It is primarily driven by your twitter network, but it shows your connections from twitter, flickr, seesmic, digg, linkedin +more. I think facebook is nearly there too (some bug to work out first). I can view people's updates/status, see the networks they are on or probable links to them, send messages, group people regardless of which network, tag people, comment on their people profiles. It is leap beyond tweetdeck as grouping is easier and it acts across networks.

It doesn't go so far as to let you respond to questions in groups on facebook or linkedIn. I got in early, but I think the soft release is imminent.

I too used to only connect with people I knew. And I was recently struggling with the growth of the network. I could no longer say something intelligent about everyone in my network. This makes weaving the network harder, but it has other benefits. I have had numerous surprise friendships and work relationships appear from the PANs. I relinquish control of introducing people, and assume that given my replies and content, people will see others they want to connect with.

And I do think managing all of these networks is about learning to relinquish control. Serve the good as best you can with what you have. You can't read everything. Prioritize replies and direct messages. Manage self-expectations and other-expectations. Flow and make space for synergy and synchronicity.

[Ashley Messick]

One line from the comment above stuck out to me as being of the utmost importance: "And I do think managing all of these networks is about learning to relinquish control." I find the networks that work best for me and put my time in there. I is tough in this day in age to not read articles about "How GREAT ______ is" and then immediately join without thought to if it is just great or if it is actually great for me. I think considering purpose is always important before diving into a new online tool.

This might be a bit confusing to explain but IMO is a reflection of my millenial mindset: the way I find it easiest to manage social networking for professional purposes and social networking for personal purposes is that there is little differentiation between the two. I feel comfortable using Facebook OR LinkedIn for professional relationships because I feel as if they both show the same me. I do not mind posting personal pictures or my personal blog in an arena where different "types" of friends will have access. Certainly this isn't for everyone necessarily but for me it has made it easier to feel comfortable with not being on a number of networks that each serve a specific "side" of me.

[Maggie McGary]

Mine is sort of tricky because of the "is it part of your job or optional?" thing. Yes, it is part of my job because my role at the association I work for is basically managing our online social networking efforts: Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr--plus monitoring what's being said about us on blogs and on Twitter. Not to mention coordinating with other departments about how they might want to use social media, then

Then in my regular life I blog about social media and do all of the same stuff as above. So that's another whole round of Facebook groups, Twitter follwers and updates, blog posts, etc, etc. I participate in a bunch of topic-specific social networks as well--those are the ones that tip the scale for me. There is just no way I can keep up with all of them, and most don't have RSS feeds for comments, new posts, etc, so if I don't log in and check them, I'm totally out of the loop.

The hard part for me is constantly switching personnas--when I twitter for work there is a certain style I have to adhere to; likewise for any interaction I have on Facebook as a representative of the association. My personal style is totally different. It would be one thing if I worked for a smaller association and had a more personal relationship with members--then I would probably be fine with just presenting one online "face." But because the association is so large and I have no contact with members--and because we are still really tiptoeing through this social media stuff--it really has to be a lot more impersonal/formal than some say it should theoretically be.

So how do I cope? Spend a ton of time online and rely pretty heavily on Twitter as an aggregator of sorts. I follow people who are in my various social networks and usually only visit those networks when one of the members mentions something specific happening or links to a particular post or item. As for Facebook, my twitters posts feed into my status updates and I pretty much only check the actual page when I get an email telling me I have a message from someone, or have to approve someone to a group or confirm a friend request.

Now that I think about it, I have to say that Twitter plays a huge part in my social networking activities--ironic considering I pretty much thought it was useless a few months ago.

[Nelson Layag]

I've recently given people new to social networking this comparison of Facebook and LinkedIn.
Facebook is like a cocktail party - primarily social, but sometimes a way to make professional contacts. Linked-In is like a conference - it's pretty much professional, but of course you have some personal connections with some people.

[Lisa Duhamel]

Hi, Beth ~

My business involves the development of websites and infusing a social networking aspect into each site to create a more consistent flow in my client's web presence. If they don't yet have a social presence created, I help them get started, as well as provide ongoing assistance. From a business standpoint, Social Networking can be a very time consuming task if you really want to extend your reach online, which is what prompted me to offer the service to other business owners and organizations. Every day the list of social networks grows. To help alleviate any overwhelm that your readers may be experiencing, new tools, upgrades & applications by which to manage social networks efficiently are becoming more available. By the way, this is the first time I have visited your blog and I'm really glad I found you (through Google alerts). I look forward to reading more!

All the best,

Lisa Duhamel
www.virtuallyready.com

[Mark Dykeman]

Hi Beth and thanks for linking out to my Mashable.com article about social media friends.

Louis Gray also linked to that post in a recent post with another interesting look at social media friends/contacts which applies a bit more to personal life, but might still make for interesting reading for your readers: Be a Friend to Your Social Media Friends:

http://www.louisgray.com/live/2008/11/be-real-friend-to-your-social.html

[Scott]

As always, some great insight Beth.

@Nelson - I really like the simple comparison of cocktail party versus conference. It obviously depends on your intent and purpose in using Twitter, but for personal use, I think that's a really good analogy.

@Maggie - I hear ya! Working for a PR firm, it's not uncommon to wear four different hats throughout the day as I help guide clients down the right path with various social media strategies. It can be tough when you're not in the role of online community manager for a company or organization where you're able to bridge the professional/personal aspects of the job. I know sites like Plaxo and Friendfeed are trying to work toward providing that "lifestream" factor, but there are still gaps in the process.

[Tony Karrer]

Fantastic post Beth!

[Surya Adi Sapoetra]

vary nice explanation..

Surya

[Sue Waters]

All my interactions online are basically professional networking and I try to be the same consistent person across all networks. I've no issue adding anyone to any of my different networks except if they are obvious spammers.

Funnily enough because I use my social networks with interact with my online network the main people I'm not comfortable with adding to any network are family and f2f friends -- yet have no issue with my adult students. I manage my multi-memberships without going crazy by choosing the main ones I want to use but allowing people to connect with me through others that I'm less fussed with. For example, Facebook appeals to my students and is convenient for them to access me 24/7 but I don't spend much time there except for mail.

My tips - it's impossible to be every where and do everything. Focus on the social networks that you feel most comfortable with. Don't stress. Each of us has our own personal preference as to what works best.