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Networking 101: Using Web 2.0

Featured Author:

Madeleine McBride

Maddie is a professional working in corporate finance. She and her husband of 15 years keep busy raising their 12-year-old son. Her column addresses topics related to personal finance and career advancement. Maddie readily admits to not being perfect.

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More articles from this author:

• When to Speak Up, When to Shut Up
• Networking 101: Using Organizations
• Reach Out and Touch: Networking 101

“Web 2.0” refers to the use of the internet in an interactive and collaborative way. In the old days of Web 1.0, we accessed information posted on various internet sites. The Web 2.0 world includes “social networking sites” – like WomenCo. – where people interact with one another personally for a variety of reasons. “Social networking” is a general term which references the web world where individuals interact with one another personally.

Social networking sites can have either general or specific purposes. MySpace and Facebook are popular examples of social networking sites with general focus. Sites exist for people to share their interests in gardening, knitting, or crochet. Internet dating is a well-known sub-group of social networking sites. Reunion.com helps people locate lost friends and family members. A site can be highly specialized with regard to its purpose and geographical region. For example, XING is a popular business site in Germany and China.

LinkedIn is a prime example of a social networking site (22 million registered users) devoted to building business relationships. Because of its popularity, LinkedIn will be the example used in this column to discuss electronic networking.

On the Home Page, the LinkedIn mission is stated: “…to help you be more effective in your daily work and open doors to opportunities using the professional relationship you already have.” Through the network one can, “find potential clients…be found for business opportunities, search for great jobs, distribute inside connections that can help you land jobs and close deals, post and distribute job listings.”

It costs nothing to join LinkedIn. Once you join, you create a profile where you create a profile by posting information about your professional life: Accomplishments, academic degrees, professional certifications and organizations. As on WomenCo., you invite people to connect to you. The difference is that on LinkedIn, you only invite people to be in “your circle” if you already know them.

On “LinkedIn,” you invite people to “join your circle” only if you feel comfortable enough with them to introduce them to another person who you know – and vice versa. If they agree, you can view the names of their circle of friends (their “connections”). If there is someone you want to meet who is a connection of theirs, you can ask them (your friend) for an introduction.

The requirement that each member knows his/her connections is critical to the effectiveness of LinkedIn. Your connections should be comprised only of people who you know well enough to speak knowledgeably of in a professional context and about whom you feel comfortable enough to introduce them to another connection with confidence.

Like networking in general, LinkedIn works on the theory of “Six Degrees of Separation.” The theory contends that every person on earth is only six people (degrees) away from any other person on earth. For example, let’s imagine that I need a personal introduction to John McCain (or Barack Obama). The theory maintains that I can obtain one by going through a series of introductions to no more than six people before I am able to obtain an introduction to McCain (or Obama). (I tested this and my profile on LinkedIn indicates that I am only three introductions away from each of these prominent fellows!)