There is a Pelican group on Linked In.

I have had an account for years.

Needed someone with a very specific skill set, entered my criteria, found a great candidate, spoke to him that eve, he's been working for me for 2 years now.

Also can help when looking for a gig. 1st build your network as big as you can. Then when you find a gig that you are interested get on Linked In and try to find someone at the prospective employer. See if you can leverage your mutual contacts to get to the person/s. Asked nicely for the favor of providing the name of the hiring manager. FedEx the hiring manager your resume. Everyone opens a FedEx.

Jim,

There is a PPOT group on LinkedIn. There are currently 99 members. You should visit the group and join.

I'm on LinkedIn and have used it -- I especially like the group function. If you are a member of a group that has the skills, you can post a question and get valid answers to your needs. I have used this a few times to solve complex storage issues here at work.

-Z-man.

I don't know anyone who's not on LinkedIn. It's pretty much a requirement of my job to do a search there before going on a meeting, so we know a client's/prospect's background and if we might have some things in common.

Still not on either and I'm still plenty busy with tons to do. Don't need any more distractions or time-suckers at this point in my life. I'm happy without this stuff and without hearing from "long losts" who are (usually) "long lost" for a reason.

THIS:
I use Facebook *very carefully* for business, and it has been REALLY effective. You just have to figure out IF it can help you, and HOW. The big "corporate" push into FB is a flop and a pile of BS, IMO. But for small, local businesses I think it is a tremendous tool if used properly and TACTFULLY.

I have been crushed this year with staff turnover in a lot of my major accounts. I have a lot of contracts coming up for renewal, call the client and get an empty vm box with no greeting, emails bounce back. FB and LI have helped a lot in keeping in touch with these folks, who don't always know or tell me in advance when they switch jobs. I only use FB for keeping in touch with those clients I consider personal friends. The rest I keep tabs on via LI. Both are totally essential in my job. I never make political comments on my FB page.

... if you are in your forties, you know how BS this is. I wonder how much they paid Money magazine.

I use FB to get updates from my favorite race tracks, local news.
I use it to give end of day visual updates to my clients.

I can keep up, on some level, with people I normally would have lost touch with.

As far as personal info. As a small business owner, it's all out there for everyone to see, anyway.

One of my FB contacts wants me to build him a track car next week.
That will help. ( money's tight ).

I like it.


KT

Two min. after my previous post, I got a call from a major client with major outstanding invoices. Previous contact had been ignoring our attempts to collect. Turns out he just left his job. It just so happens that his name is a little too common for me to easily find on FB. But I'll look him up on LI and find out where he's landed. Could turn into a new client. I have won plenty of clients because it turned out we knew the same people from previous jobs/accounts. That stuff means something in sales and FB and LI help with it.

I have a linkedin account but never use it as I got it quite a few years ago but didn't find value. I've gone on and off FB, and am back on now, mostly as a tool for promoting music gigs and keeping up with collaborators and some colleagues/friends. But it primarily is another visibility site for music stuff.

I have a facebook account that I use very infrequently. I just checked, I have a total of five "Friends".

My son won't "Friend" me. Which is unfortunate for him. I just posted some pictures of the car that I am working on for him. He hasn't seen the car yet.

I used to think the same way until I was at a pre-conference seminar that had a discussion on social networking and a presentation from Don Taspscott. The new generation of workers entering the workforce are NetGen "kids". They have grown up with FB, LI, texting, etc and know them as the norm for communication and building relationships. These are the ones that will be bringing innovation into the company and driving it to "the next level." Depending on where you are in your career, you may or may not be able to outlast this change in corporate culture.

My suggestion is that you'd be better off to be ahead of the curve on these technologies rather than be left behind. I'm not saying that I have (yet). However, at least I'm aware that I need to make more of an effort to embrace these new fangled technologies I despise so much.

Granted, this advice doesn't apply to everyone, but if you're in a large corporation or an industry that thrives on innovation, you better get on board while you still can. YMMV

It's a fad.

Won't last - just like AOL Instant Messaging, Yahoo IM or any one of a million other things that have come and gone on the Internet.

Also, is there any way on earth that FB has any sort of moneymaking potential? *cricket* *cricket* Usually things that aren't big money makers don't last long as industry powerhouses.

I don't think Twitter will last long, but FB and LI will. The founder of FB is a billionaire and several years shy of age 30.

The social media religion will not last long, but FB will endure. I don't use it for anything but keeping in touch with people I want to keep in touch with. I don't subscribe to fan pages or news feeds and I block a lot of friends' updates because I don't care about seeing 10 new baby photos every day or that it snowed where I used to live and hope to never return.

Facebook '09 revenue neared $800 million | Reuters

Who are the "industry powerhouses" that you speak of?

"Social media" started many years ago. I had students authoring class projects on the web starting back in '96 (examples from '98-99: http://www.nostatic.com/proteins/) and was using ICQ chat for lectures back then as well. We did experiments with wikis, blogs, and other "disruptive technologies" for education use in the early part of this decade. The tools have evolved/morphed, but the phenomenon, driven by digital technology, is no fad.

+1 on what nostatic said. While the company or specific delivery vehicle may not endure, the evolution of the technology will. I spend a good portion of my week instant messaging managers across the company for status updates. We have Agile development teams that work (collaborate) almost exclusively off of blog sites and wiki entries. The key, to me, is to know when to rely on these technologies and when to just pick up the phone and have a conversation. I find a lot of people are at one extreme or the other.

I'm not on LinkedIn, yet. I will be once it gets closer to grad time and I start looking for employment, anywhere, and everywhere.

I am on Fb in a pretty big way. Its great, I can keep in touch with friends that moved halfway across the country, guys I met through scouting, guys I met here on this BBS. I even get to have a few chats a week with my room mate that got deployed to Afghanistan.

I keep telling my boss that he is not utilizing FB to its fullest for his small variety store/radioshack/pharmacy/fountain. He posts a few times a week. I'm like post pictures, post the lunch specials w/pictures. Etc, etc. Its free advertising! Use it!

We utilize IM and text extensively at work, and many of our employees are in their 40s and 50s. I have received multiple job offers via LinkedIn. They're tools, all are useful in the right context.

Facebook I see as a toy, do you really want your boss seeing your buddy posting about taking shots off of a stripper's ass at your bachelor party?

My boss would love that and respect me more if I were the one doing it. Really. But I don't have him as a FB friend and I have my settings such that only friends can view my photos.