Social Networking for Professionals

If you’ve ever used the Internet at all, you’ve probably seen the evidence of social networking. It’s everywhere you look online, with buzzwords that are becoming more and more part of popular discussion. You’ve probably heard of the popular social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, but what do you know about the world of social networking for professionals?
Professional Social Networking

The Internet today is filled with opportunities and possibilities which make it possible for people to meet other people online. It’s the same idea whether it’s a site meant for finding dates and mates, friends or even business contacts -- it’s networking. With all social networking, the basic plan of attack is that you fill out a profile and allow others to find you. With professional social networking, the goal is for all that networking to produce usable business contacts and new career opportunities. In professional networking, the hope is that the contacts you make will help you further your own job goals. You aren’t just meeting people with professional networking, you’re meeting people who can help you with your career.

Social networking is a proven formula, and that’s one of the reasons it’s so popular. By filling out a pre-designed form, you can share information about yourself that others can easily search. People you’ve met before and perhaps those you haven’t can find you and then connect with you in some way, either by sending you a message or marking you as a contact through the networking site itself.

Highly-popular social networking does work. But what about career-themed professional social networking?

If you’re going to give professional social networking a try, it’s a good idea to know what you’re getting into. All sites are different, and some will offer the services and features which best appeal to your career needs and goals. Compare the following free professional networking sites to see if any will help you achieve your job desires.

LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/

LinkedIn is strictly meant for professional and business purposes. Upon joining the network, you will fill out a highly detailed profile which showcases your past and present business achievements. You can even include past education information as well. The site’s purpose is to help you build business contacts; you receive emailed alerts when you find new ones. There are a few tools and features which help you take the networking further than establishing a connection through you profile, but this site presents itself very professionally and caters to business-minded users in simple, straightforward page designs that are easy to use.

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/

Highly picture-driven, Facebook is considered a very hot social networking site. Though this site is much more about making friends and meeting people than it is about realizing professional goals, you can still create a career-themed profile just to be a part of the site. It’s easy to refer people you meet to this well-known, easy-to-find site.

MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/

Catering mainly to a younger crowd, MySpace offers blogs, forums, events -- you name it, MySpace probably has it. The immense success of this site makes it viable for any professional. People are highly familiar with MySpace, and it’s free to belong as a member. Remember to check your MySpace page often, as the casual tone of the site does not lend itself easily to professionalism and you may need to edit your on-page comments.

Why Network?

Searching out a networking site, building a profile and collecting contacts can be time-consuming tasks. You’re a business professional, so why would you take the time to do all of this when you’ve already got a job to do? Why bother with networking at all? In one word, marketing.
Unless you’re willing to spend extra time searching, you probably won’t get a bevy of contacts through having a professional networking profile alone. But even if you do nothing else but fill out a profile, you are getting your name out there in a very tangible and meaningful way. You’re self-promoting, and in the world of business self promotion is extremely important and necessary. By simply putting your name on a professionally-toned networking site, you’re distinguishing yourself. In business, sometimes that’s all it takes to get the ball rolling and get yourself recognized.

Having a professional profile online means you have a link which you can pass out to other professionals to let them know more about you. It means your name is part of the online world, so you can be searched on Google and other popular search engines. A professional networking profile means exposure and opportunity. What could be better for business than that?

Successful Professional Networking

There’s no point in participating in professional networking if you aren’t going to do it well. You should treat professional networking the same way you would treat any other business venture -- the objective is success. But what defines success when it comes to professional networking?
Are you a business success if you have a huge list of professional networking contacts? Have you found success if you’ve found a way to build a huge base of online friends and connections? While having lots of contacts is all well and good, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are reaching a sought-after business goal.

If you want to meet new people, business professionals like yourself, professional networking is a great way to go about getting it done. You can build up a base of career-oriented people, the uses of which may be limitless. Simply having a network of working professionals from a variety of different fields can be useful. You can contact these people perhaps for services, tips, advice and a bevy of other uses. But even when you have no real interest in networking or meeting people, a professional social network can serve a purpose.

Once again, the answer is marketing. There is no price you can put on the value of self-promotion in the business world. Getting your name out there, leaving a mark and making yourself available are the hallmarks of business success. Achieve this and you’re bound to do well.

Your Professional Profile

Always write your professional profile with marketing in mind. Make it easy for people to contact you, make it easy for them to find out more about you and make it easy for them to see just what you’ve got to offer. All of this can be done in a single, well-planned profile.
The email address. Make sure your actual email address, and not just the email link provided by the networking site, is available to the public. You can open a free email account with many different sites, so if you like, just create a special email for this public box. You never know when someone will contact you with new offers and information, but you do know they never will if you don’t offer the means.

The links. Include links in your profile. Remember, this is about self-promotion so don’t ever shy away from promoting yourself when it comes to professional networking. You should absolutely feature a link to your professional home page on your profile, as well as links to any of your work or other professional profiles you’d like to show off.

The Information

Include a crisp, well-written professional biography on your profile page. Make sure this has a business, and not a personal tone. Write the bio in the third person -- that is, write as if you are describing someone other than yourself -- and be sure to include your professional achievements and background.

If your professional profile does nothing else for you, it’s at least always there promoting you as a professional person. You can create a profile and never visit the networking site again, and yet still you could receive opportunities because the profile exists. Social networking for professionals is a form of advertising, and it really works.

Original article: http://tools.devshed.com/c/a/Online-Business-Help/Social-Networking-for-Professionals/3/
Social Networking for Professionals
By: KC Morgan