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What business purpose motivated you to join a social network?
Forrester found that 46% of business technology decision makers in the last year have joined social networking sites for business purposes. The previous year’s study was 29%. What was your primary (business-related) motivation for joining a social network? Have you seen any benefits to joining? Would you recommend other business technology professionals join social networks?
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6 Answers
I was "right sized" out of a primo, good paying job about a year ago. I was always a networker, but I really poured it on after becoming unemployed for the first time since college. I needed to reach out to all the great folks I had befriended over my career. The right job is out there for me.
When I started to network, I also started to seek out free education on the web to prepare myself better for the interviewing process. Well I found a lot, so I figured out a way to provide free education opportunities for my cohorts in Information Technology by listing it on a website. Every day I search the web and always find new material. I post the links on my web site and publish the updates nightly. This drove me to network even more so I could get the word out. Now I use LinkedIN, Facebook, Twitter, Naymz, FOCUS, Plaxo, and more.
So far, I have seen no payback for my networking or IT community service, but I am confident I will, and besides, I enjoy it.
It's a full time job keeping up with these networks. I don't think I will be able to keep current on all of them once I go back to work - and I don't know about my website either. We'll see.
I hope this answers your question and ultimately helps.
I have found that professional social media sites like LinkedIn allow me to passively keep track of my network's activities in a way that would otherwise be impossible. Checking in each day allows me to see what people are up to, new positions they have accepted, and the occasional call for assistance from someone I know. I find it a valuable and fairly simple way to keep track of people.
I was recently laid off from my position as the Latin America Marketing Manager for Comverse. In that position, I used LinkedIN to post articles and press releases on group sites. Since my layoff, I use social networking sites to reconnect with contacts. I've learned there are recruiters using LinkedIn and I check job postings there.
I'd say that from a business (not a personal) perspective, I've joined social networks for three major reasons:
First, thought leadership. We're trying to establish some level of thought leadership for our company. Social networks are a great way to get your message out to a wider audience.
Second, community engagement and dialogue. We're interested in having a dialogue with the community. A one-way message is not enough. Social networks allow us to widen our feedback loop.
Third, content distribution and audience development. We use social media as a way to distribute interesting content to users. Gone are the days when you had to buy media (display advertising, email sends, content sponsorships) to get people to come to your site. Now you not only send emails but distribute your content through social networks to have people come back to your site for whatever interests them.
Michael.
Mostly, social media (Twitter, FB, LinkedIn) is useful for a business purpose of distributing content and interacting with the readers. Networking is another business use as well. Sometimes it is also great to be able to quickly poll people about some interesting issue and get an answer ("temperature") within minutes.
I have several reasons to engage in social media, some of which are:
* Continued learning from the advice of "experts" and others.
* Extended "Mastermind Group"
* Mass exposure beyond my own area.
* Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
* Direct Leads to my website.
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