Why use business social networking sites?

Many use business social networking do so to achieve what they used to do in traditional networking, reach someone for some form of mutual benefit. That could be to sell them something, create a partnership, gain a further referral, make a career move, research a company or industry, or gain competitive intelligence.

LinkedIn quote that 1 million people are joining LinkedIn every 25 days. The people that are joining start to spread the word by connecting with people they know, are getting to know, or as some "open" networkers are doing connect with people they do not know!

As a tool it has evolved and gained popularity, the power of the tool increases as you increase the number of people that you are connected to. The end result is that a huge database of professionals has been created that is used by many of the people that can helpful in your current career and future career.

You need to take control, your online profile may be the first impression you make on someone, it may also be the only impression you make on someone. I am not going to get into the process of creating a profile that will help promote our personal brand online, you can see that in our e-book downloadable from this site. What I want to do here is outline how the site is being used to help you see value, and to get you to think about the impact of using tools like Xing and LinkedIn.

The first thing you should use a business social network for is to Make connections. This increases the chance that people find you above the millions of other profiles. People like to connect with people that are connected. I am not an economist but there is great value in the quality of the network that you develop during your career. When people do find you they will look at your connections and look for similarity with themselves and look for mutual friends / colleagues. People are more likely to work with someone that they trust, or have mutual contacts that they trust.

Your online profile is your online CV / Resume, Make your profile consistent with your traditional CV / Resume, and make sure you do not lie! That may sound silly but it is a known fact that people are extravagant with the truth on their CV / Resumes. With thousands of people able to view your profile you need to ensure that you are consistent and truthful. Do not limit your profile to just your current role, as this limits the ability for you to be found and therefore connect. Make sure you include education and professional qualifications, memberships, affiliations, and interests / hobbies.

Do not be shy about your profile, Promote your profile. As an accepted business networking tool, these sites open up an interesting opportunity. If you were to include your traditional CV / Resume in your e-mail as an attachment every time it would be seen as a little odd, if not down right irritating to your current employer! However, it is common practice to include a link to your business networking profile in your signature. This can subliminally be used to allow people to get to know you and understand the value you have to offer.

Googling yourself is not something to be shy about, I actually encourage it, trust me you will not go blind. Go on Google yourself. The net result of social networking sites trying to gain more traffic and register more users is that they have developed their databases so they can be searched, your profile can appear in the natural search results delivered by Google.
Once your profile is complete you can further promote your profile through Guerilla marketing. The advent of Web 2.0 and the ease with which anyone can contribute to web sites, forums, blogs, Wikis e.t.c. Has led to your ability to further promote yourself. The search engines like Google like web pages that have other pages referring to them. By using the web link (URL) that shows your profile page in comments or other entries you make on the web then you further enhance the visibility of your profile.

To further increase the effectiveness of you profile encourage people that you trust to build recommendations for you. The best way of doing this is to recommend your contacts; I’ll rub your back if you’ll rub mine. This has been the basis of traditional networking for years. Do not stop now just because it is an online medium.

One thing that recruiters are doing continually is using these tools for research. If you are going to try and win business, aim to find people that have worked there previously and gather intelligence. Be certain that if you are going to make a career move, your new employer is going to want to check out your credentials and background. The prevalence of flase claims on CV / Resumes has led many recruiters and corporate hiring authorities to believe the acronym (TAL) “They All Lie”. Well how about turning the tables and making sure you know about the back ground of the hirer as well.

Find out where people with similar skills as you work, and do some market research on who might be a future employer. As a recruiter we have always used tools to get a target list of companies that might be interested in a talented individual that I was managing the career of, you can do the same. If you get connect and start entering the recruitment process, use the tool to research the company, and the hiring manager to ensure there is a fit professionally and personally. Do not be scared of speaking directly with ex-employees, they are normally more than willing to comment on their previous employer. If you do not get what you need first time try again, it is a little bit of a numbers game. Recruiters have done it for years, keep trying and you will be amazed at what people will tell you.

A new product launched by LinkedIn is their answers tool. It allows you to ask business questions to your contacts and also to the wider audience. The interesting spin on this is not only to ask your own questions, but actively participate in answering questions in an area where you have specialist knowledge. This not only attracts the attention of other potential contacts but also builds a record of your interaction and demonstrates your expertise in the area.

The net result here is that there are many reasons to use business network tools, above and beyond promoting your own personal brand online. With our hints and tips, we hope that you can differentiate yourself and ensure you are able to maximise the opportunities open to you.