tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20576845.post3163649406363832050..comments2024-03-15T16:44:45.322+01:00Comments on Ziobrando's Lair: Social Networking PatternsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00568728817611163214noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20576845.post-38414299574230897792008-05-18T06:28:00.000+02:002008-05-18T06:28:00.000+02:00Alberto, Yes, I remember reading your first post, ...Alberto, <BR/><BR/>Yes, I remember reading your first post, as well. In addition to the "Networking is Easier Than You Think" article, I have written several times about LinkedIn in other posts, as well.<BR/><BR/>Also, I've enjoyed our discussion so much, I referred to this post and sequence of comments in a recent article comment on search engines and methods (http://advice.cio.com/comment/reply/5976).<BR/><BR/>Thanks, mate!<BR/><BR/><B><A HREF="http://advice.cio.com/free_form_keyword/mark_cummuta" REL="nofollow">Mark Cummuta</A></B>Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04927343120583851374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20576845.post-46843786908489764892008-05-17T10:15:00.000+02:002008-05-17T10:15:00.000+02:00Hi Mark,to be honest, one of your blog posts ha be...Hi Mark,<BR/><BR/>to be honest, one of your blog posts ha been pointed out by Andrey Golub, and was at the source of this reasoning. You can find that it's linked in my previous post on the same topic. So, the whole web 2.0 stuff is just needed to have three folks talk on the same topic. :-)<BR/><BR/>What I've realized is the most interesting part of the Social networking and Web 2.0 arena i the fact that a crowd behaviour emereges from very different individual behavioural patterns. You can think with a "rules of the game" as an individual, bute every individual is playing his own game. The result is sort of "crowd patterns" and a clustered but valuable body of knowledge.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00568728817611163214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20576845.post-39822100561456300502008-05-16T05:10:00.000+02:002008-05-16T05:10:00.000+02:00Interesting theories you've posited re: LinkedIn s...Interesting theories you've posited re: LinkedIn specifically, and social networking in general. I can't comment to the latter, but I have been using LinkedIn for about a year or so, for many of the same reasons you are, in fact.<BR/><BR/>There is a growing set of norms for how to act/react in LinkedIn, and I believe there actually may be three sets for the three relatively distinct categories of users.<BR/><BR/>1) <B>Power Users</B> - these are the individuals that gather thousands of names and contacts. My experience, albeit of only a year, indicates that these individuals tend to either use their massive "rolodex" for business purposes (ie, recruiters, business development / sales, marketing, etc), for prestige (naming rights, so to speak, to having the most contacts), or because they think that is an indicator of success in the "social networking game".<BR/><BR/>2) <B>Minimalists</B> - provide very little information if any about themselves; rarely interact with others. These individuals are either new to social networking / LinkedIn (this includes those that joined solely because someone recommended they needed to, but have not done anything else with it), or they are intentionally (either due to protectionist personal values, or caution relative to their current employer) or unintentionally (don't know / don't care what's proper yet for a profile) flying under the radar.<BR/><BR/>3) <B>Standard Users</B> - individuals with say, 30-150 (??) 1st-level contacts, who only use LinkedIn for their immediate contacts. This could be because they don't understand the concept yet, are not comfortable with the openness that social networking implies / needs, and/or feel that they only want to connect with and stay in contact with those that they know and trust (treating these systems in an "inner sanctum" kind of way).<BR/><BR/>Actually, I have to add a fourth group, "<B>Expanders</B>" since I've fallen into this new group myself. An Expander is someone that is in transition or is in a mix of more than one of the other groups. For example, I used to believe in only connecting with those individuals that I have some form of positive relationship with. Having 25 years total IT and business experience, and 15 of that in consulting, I still don't have all those individuals in my network and I've nearing 800 1st-level contacts. However, I have relatively recently starting reaching out to others with similar strengths and goals, such as other CIOs / CTOs, others specializing in data warehousing, business process management, CRM, BI, etc. So while I don't consider myself a fully open networker, I am more than willing to connect with others that I have not met or worked with yet, so that we can all benefit with our combined knowledge.<BR/><BR/>I've written a bit about LinkedIn in some of my own blog posts. Since I blog about executive IT job search tactics, I have noted LinkedIn as my system of choice, and have described how I use the system to network and find leads.<BR/><BR/>You can find my blog at <B><A HREF="http://advice.cio.com/free_form_keyword/mark_cummuta" REL="nofollow">mark cummuta</A></B>. Let me know what you think ... and send me an invitation to link if you like! :-D<BR/><BR/>Mark Cummuta<BR/>CIO, MBA, Author, USMCAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04927343120583851374noreply@blogger.com