Facebook, LinkedIn, and me

August 30 2007

Interest in the online social networks seems to be increasing.  Every single day, I get new invitations to join LinkedIn networks.  I created a Facebook profile a couple of weeks ago, and am getting frequently friended there as well.

It's starting to get tough to network.  I know I'm hardly the first blogger to comment on this explosion.  But I'm finding I have to make some decisions about how to use each system.

In my mind, I can see a segmentation between the two.  

As others have said, LinkedIn is really a great online address book metaphor.  I can find current information for people I know or knew, contacts in organizations where I need contacts, and get more professional background on contacts.  Useful, but not interactive.  They've added some features that make it somewhat more interactive, but nothing particularly compelling to me.

Facebook feels a lot more personal.  It's an interesting reflection of the true "social" network, as I learn a lot more personal information about people I know and work with every day, as well as friends from other circles of life.  But it's also a bit more revealing in that way, though obviously one can control the disclosure.

I mean no offense to anyone if I decline connection or friend requests.  I think the word "friend" as used by Facebook should mean something, and a threshold for me is something along the lines of, is this a person I've shared a meal with, had a meaningful conversation with, or otherwise would recognize in a "crowd" (real or virtual).  Without some criteria like that, Facebook feels a bit like a popularity contest.  I mean, I like my friends, and I have been privileged to make friends with many of you over the last 4+ years.  But I don't think everyone needs to know that I have a world traveler IQ of 125, really, do you?  (Ha ha StuMac, I pwned you :-P)

LinkedIn, likewise, I have a threshold.  I don't think it is as well-defined, but if I know nothing about you from the last three years, and wouldn't recognize you at a conference, then I'm probably not going to connect.  As their canned script says, "as someone I trust...".

Oh, and no -- I don't have a myspace.  For whatever reason, that one felt like the entropy that happens when professional and personal worlds collide.  Not that it's always a bad thing, as I might try to acknowledge...next week.

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  People  Add/View Comments [24]

Post a Comment

  1. 1  Stephan H. Wissel http://www.wissel.net/ | 8/30/2007 12:11:49 PM

    Looks like it is time for a meta service (Expeditor plug-in anyone) that helps you to keep track of your entries in the various sites to link it all up (with nice tags what goes where)

    :-) stw

  1. 2  Karen Demerly  | 8/30/2007 12:29:26 PM

    The social networking sites can be (and are) whatever you make of them, which is what I appreciate about them. My friends lists are very small, but I'm an introvert, and 300 friends is overwhelming and not really reflective of how I interact with people in real life, so I don't "go there". I've tried adding people I don't know in some meaningful way, and just always felt weird about it, and so I don't anymore.

    Still and all, it can be whatever you want it to be, which is fantastic.

  1. 3  Karen Demerly  | 8/30/2007 12:43:50 PM

    Also, this site becomes more valuable now that the social networking sites are everywhere. Voted one of PC Magazine's Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites. { Link }

  1. 4  Stuart McIntyre http://lotusconnectionsblog.com | 8/30/2007 12:56:05 PM

    @Ed - I'll keep practising my TravellerIQ, and maybe just maybe, one day I'll beat ya!

    @1: Try Fidgt { Link } for a service that brings all your SocNet contacts together...

  1. 5  Volker Weber http://vowe.net | 8/30/2007 3:36:07 PM

    I find LinkedIn to be quite good at staying connected, when people change jobs for instance. But it is very hard to reconnect, because you need to know the current mail address, or you need to bother somebody else to introduce. Also, if you chose a working mail address that is not being used as a possible login to LinkedIn, the other person has a hard time accepting your invitation. Once you have overcome that issue, it is indeed a great address book, and not much more.

    I have more success with XING, but so far that is very Germany-centric. They are working on that... XING is very limited for non-paying members, and although I seem to be on an eternal trial membership, I am not using any of their advanced features.

    Facebook is more fun, just as you said. The river of news is what makes me come back every day. I have a lot of friends who are not on Facebook, and will most likely never be, so what counts as a friend on Facebook, hardly matches my real life. But it's fun anyway.

  1. 6  tonyo  | 8/30/2007 3:41:40 PM

    some companies are blocking facebook from their corporate network as they say it wastes too much time in people's work day.I can't believe that !

    Hey.. what's Ed doing right now? -{ Link }

  1. 7  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 8/30/2007 3:47:51 PM

    @6 well, I hope that that link isn't wide open...you're my friend, despite your employer, so you can see it :-)

  1. 8  Chris Miller http://www.IdoNotes.com | 8/30/2007 3:56:51 PM

    Funny you bring all this up after last week with the Lotus Connections team. I took them on a few minute whirlwind of social netowrk sites showing them what Connections is missing as well as the need to interact and consolidate all your profiles.

    Spock, Fidgt, Jaiku all offer these. BubbleUp and some others offer the homepage that Connections misses. FaceBook brings quite a few things to one place, but misses out on some of the enterprise needs.

    My other blog { Link } is going deep into the social network sites now..

  1. 9  Henry Ferlauto http://www.geniusinside.com | 8/30/2007 4:05:37 PM

    I find LinkedIn to be very helpful. First, as you and others have mentioned; it's a good address book. But I do use it for networking and business opportunities.

    The "Answers" section does provide the opportunity every so often to introduce myself to someone new.

    But my question for you Ed is this: When will there be Lotus Notes integration with Web 2.0 apps like LinkedIn, Plaxo and others? No one seems to think there's enough demand for it.

    I posed a similar question at Lotusphere 2007 during one of the Business Development Day sessions. The session itself was about Web 2.0 technologies. (I forget the exact name of the session.) Anyway, the answers were illusive at best. I kept pressing, and you could almost see the sweat start to break out on the presenters because they knew they had nothing of substance to come back with. After the session was over, a few of the presenters came over and basically said to the effect, "we hear you.... we're working on it."

    Haven't seen much since. One can only hope that the buzz of ND8 will make Notes "cool" again and thus some Web 2.0 integration.

    What say you?

  1. 10  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 8/30/2007 4:17:00 PM

    Actually, a blog reader pointed me to

    { Link }

    as a way to sync Notes address book to LinkedIn. More info at { Link }

  1. 11  Michael "Mike" Kinder http://www.acadiasolutions.com/A55937/website.nsf/LI%20Importer | 8/30/2007 5:50:20 PM

    RE: #9, please read #10, also I am working with Plaxo and a few others to get Lotus Notes Integrated with their products. Not so certain Lotus wants to do that, but I have already begun the process with LinkedIn and Plaxo, also working with a few other vendors. My current product is specific to LinkedIn, however I hope to release version 1.02.00 of the product very soon. It will allow Import of LinkedIn (no reason to export for now as LinkedIn has no way of handling this) to Lotus Notes for synchronization, but also Import/Export from/to Yahoo!, GMail, Outlook, and Outlook Express.

    Mike Kinder

    mkinder@acadiasolutions.com

  1. 12  Keith Brooks http://lotustech.blogspot.com | 8/30/2007 6:38:35 PM

    I was wondering about the value of linking your/any product to the socnets.

    Is it a good idea or bad? Will it make a difference in sales? perhaps.

    But I agree with Chris@8 that there is a need for connections to not be a simple notes db/app(my view I know its not really) but a more encompassing one which USERS want to use, not corporate minions.

    For instance why aren't the communities mail enabled? An obvious function lost in the shuffle?

    Where is the SAMETIME presence? If it's there can someone turn it on in the partner version please.

  1. 13  Ted Stanton http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/InsideLotus | 8/30/2007 8:32:38 PM

    Would people be interested in an aggregated social networking website. For the next release of Lotus Connections, we are "considering" using public API's from these popular social sites and surface that information in Connections.

    For example, if I was to view a colleagues' Profile, I would also be able to see their updated content from external social sites?

  1. 14  Keith Brooks http://lotustech.blogspot.com | 8/30/2007 10:22:37 PM

    Ted that could be interesting,but how would someone block it if they did not want it finding them on facebook for example? It would need to be up tot he individual to allow it of course.

  1. 15  Chris Miller http://www.IdoNotes.com | 8/30/2007 10:45:23 PM

    Ted, you and I have had that talk, of course. I think it is needed and might expand the use of the social networking experience through Connections.

  1. 16  Stuart McIntyre http://lotusconnectionsblog.com | 8/31/2007 12:39:48 AM

    @8: Great blog content Chris...

    Just a quick heads-up that Connections 1.0.1 was released yesterday which features the new Pilot Install option as well as the Activities plug-in for Notes8.

    See Ted's post at the Inside Lotus blog { Link }

  1. 17  David Vasta http://www.iseriesaddict.com | 8/31/2007 7:14:39 AM

    Ed,

    I am having the same problems you are, only I am not the face of Lotus in the US right now, but you do make some great points. It's confusing.

    Thanks for your insight on things it was truly nice to see someone talk about it other than people I know and trust.

    -David

  1. 18  Steven  | 8/31/2007 7:36:30 AM

    @3: Looks like it gives you the exact same results as just doing a std Google for the names I tried. Maybe my friends aren't on any of the social web sites...

  1. 19  Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com | 8/31/2007 8:10:31 AM

    Ed, I share your thoughts.

    What is nice is the occasional "past from the past" that crops up because of these sites.

    I listed an old employer on Linked In, and earlier this week got an email from a lost friend from 25 years ago.

    That makes it all the more valuable ... I'd have never found her through other means ..

    - Rob

  1. 20  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 8/31/2007 8:28:07 AM

    Damn you Ed, now I'm addicted to TravellerIQ! :-P I really don't have a need for whatever it is these sites are offer. Like most of the "2.0" hype, I don't get it.

  1. 21  Michael "Mike" Kinder http://www.acadiasolutions.com/A55937/website.nsf/LI%20Importer | 9/5/2007 9:56:18 AM

    It appears that integration of popular existing social networks and Lotus Notes or Lotus Connections is something people need/want. Myself (Mike Kinder of Acadia Services & Solutions, LLC) and Michael Haschek of Seamless, LLC (www.seamless-llc.com) are teaming up to bring you just that. Currently Seamless has a product that can allow for capturing and integrating this information, but we are working on making it more "Lotus Friendly". Currently it integrates Facebook, Ning, LinkedIn, Viadeo, Xing, and PLAXO.

    If you have an interest in more information about this feel free to contact me @ mkinder@acadiasolutions.com. We hope to have the product available quite soon.

    Mike Kinder

  1. 22  Tim Wyatt  | 10/18/2007 4:24:13 PM

    Don't know if you read Fortune or not --- but the often hilarious and usually apt Stanley Bing has something to add to this topic....

    { Link }

    if you read this don't be surprised if "..a trickle of angst creeps up your spine and lodges behind your ears"

  1. 23  Gammydodger http://www.realtea.net | 11/15/2007 6:49:52 AM

    I have around somewhere between 150 and 200 contacts on Linked In and I would be happy to introduce any of those contacts to each other or ask for a reference - a 2 degree separation seems reliable.

    Some of my contacts have 500+ contacts of their own - if I wanted to be put in touch with one of those contacts 2 degrees away from me, I would worry about the strength of that recommendation.

    I feel that people with a huge Linked In network are unlikely to be phenomenal networkers, but rather people who use Linked In like a miscellaneous business card wallet.

    But as with any of these social networking sites, nobody is right or wrong, it's just how you choose to use the service.