Online Business Networking Tools
Linked in
“Your professional network of trusted contacts gives you an advantage in your career, and is one of your most valuable assets. LinkedIn exists to help you make better use of your professional network and help the people you trust in return. Our mission is to connect the world’s professionals to accelerate their success. We believe that in a global connected economy, your success as a professional and your competitiveness as a company depends upon faster access to insight and resources you can trust.”
Over 35 million professionals use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas and opportunities
- Stay informed about your contacts and industry
- Find the people & knowledge you need to achieve your goals
- Control your professional identity online
LinkedIn is a tool that you can use to expand your network outside of the people that you already know. You must first create a profile to access this (www.linkedin.com) To join the GTAA group, just visit www.gtalumni.org/pages/career and look in the first paragraph to connect with 6000+ other alums in that group.
As the official LinkedIn group of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, our goal is to provide networking opportunities for all Georgia Tech alumni and students. For quicker approval to this group, please use your gatech.edu or gtalumni.org email address. Go Jackets!
Linkedin is probably the best way to network online. You can not only put yourself out there for employers to see, you can also network through 2nd and 3rd tier connections. You can also search for jobs posted internally. Be sure to check out specific groups related to specific region/industries you may be interested in as groups have prove to be a great specific networking resource.
Facebook.com
It is strongly encouraged to not use Facebook as a way to professionally network due to its foundations as a social network. However, if you choose to use Facebook, make sure you remove or “untag” any material that would appear negative to a possible employer as it is now common for employers to check a prospective employee’s facebook page (the same applies to Myspace.com).
Spoke.com
“Spoke allows you to find and connect with 40 million businesspeople at 2.3 million companies. Spoke reaches beyond traditional professional networks by allowing you to connect with anyone in the Network, regardless of whether they are a member. Members use Spoke to discover and grow their professional networks and connect with the right people to accelerate their businesses and careers.”
Spoke appears to be similar to Linkedin, but not as useful or popular. The website says that they have 40 million businesspeople, which is comparable to Linkedin.
Schmoozii.com
“Schmoozii, Inc. is an online business networking community designed to give business professionals a place to network with like minded individuals, learn about their profession, and find out the latest trends in their profession.
Schmoozii allows professionals to determine their level of involvement on the site. You can create an extensive profile and meet other like minded professionals, participate in professional groups, read about the latest studies and trends in your profession, or find a new job with one of the many employers on the site.”
Schmoozii is an online business networking community specifically for:
- Marketing/Sales
- Accounting/Finance
- Small Business/Startup
Ryze.com
“Ryze helps people make connections and grow their networks. You can network to grow your business, build your career and life, find a job and make sales. Or just keep in touch with friends.
Members get a free networking-oriented home page and can send messages to other members. They can also join special Networks related to their industry, interests or location. More than 1,000 organizations host Networks on Ryze to help their members interact with each other and grow their organizations.”
Xing.com
“XING – The business network”
“Around the world every day, over 7 million business professionals use XING – the global business network – in 16 languages to do business and promote their career. XING makes networking and professional contact management simple, with made-to-measure networking functions and services. Even more, XING allows you to see how people are connected, which is an excellent tool in generating new contacts of your own.
With the XING Jobs portal, more than 24,000 expert groups and networking events from London to Beijing to New York, XING has evolved from a platform to a web interface for business professionals around the world. ”
Doostang.com
“Doostang is an exclusive career community that helps elite young professionals accelerate their careers.”
“Founded in 2005 at Harvard, Stanford and MIT, Doostang was created with one goal in mind: to successfully advance ambitious young professionals in their careers. Doostang offers it's members the opportunity to search thousands of high-quality, highly relevant opportunities, and tools to leverage their inside connection to get hired. Our rapidly-growing community of over half a million of the best and brightest continues to attract in-demand opportunities in finance, consulting, media, technology and more.”
Orkut.com
“Orkut is an online community designed to make your social life more active and stimulating. orkut's social network can help you maintain existing relationships with pictures and messages, and establish new ones by reaching out to people you've never met before.
Orkut makes it easy to find people who share your hobbies and interests, look for romantic connections or establish new business contacts. You can also create and join a wide variety of online communities to discuss current events, reconnect with old school mates or even exchange your favorite recipes. Who you interact with is entirely up to you. Before getting to know an orkut member, you can read their profile and even see how they're connected to you through the friends network.
To join orkut, simply sign in with your Google Account and you can begin to create your own profile right away. If you do not have a Google Account yet, we will help you create one in minutes. ”
Plaxo.com
“We started with a different kind of address book, one that leverages the power of the network effect to stay up-to-date. We securely host address books for more than 40 million people (and growing rapidly). And now, we're bringing those address books to life with "Pulse," a new way to enrich your connection with the people in your life. Pulse is a bit like some social networks you've heard of, but it's different in several key ways…
First, Pulse is not a place to see how many online "friends" you can collect. It’s meant to be a better way for you to stay in touch with the people you actually know and care about — your family, your real-world friends, and the people you know from business. Pulse makes it easy for you to see what they’re creating and sharing online — their blogs, the photos they’re uploading, their restaurant reviews, and so much more.
Second, Pulse is not a "walled garden." It’s a dashboard for seeing what the people you know are creating and sharing all over the open web. You can hook your Pulse account up to all the places where you create or share stuff (your blog, Flickr, Twitter, Yelp, and more than 30 other sites). But "open" does not mean "public." With Plaxo, you have fine-grained control over what you share with whom, whether that’s your contact info — or your photos from last weekend. Our privacy policy is one of the strongest out there, and we are full supporters of the Bill of Rights for Users of the Social Web.
We are dedicated to the notion that your address book, your friends list, and your content belong to you, not to us. We make it easy for you to take them with you wherever you go and to use them with an ever-expanding array of sites, applications, and devices.”
Plaxo is a great tool to consolidate all of the networking sites that you use into one convenient location.
Twitter.com
The best part of Twitter is that it allows you to connect with people you don't know, based on common interests. What a great way to do some networking!
* Basic Networking - Stay more connected to people who are involved in areas you are interested in. If you hear about a job available at a particular company, you could possibly tweet a friend you made on Twitter, and in minutes get some information about that job.
* Job Postings - Connect with many people and find out about jobs that you would not have otherwise known about.
* Connecting - When someone follows you or you follow them, read their bio thoroughly. If it looks like they work somewhere you might be interested in, or if you think they might be someone who could connect you to others, get in touch with them. A few may say no or not respond at all, but for the most part, people are very open to meeting or talking.
* Companies – A great Twitter tool is Twellow, which actually searches people's bios and URLs on their bios. It's amazing! For example, you could do a search on Shift Communications, and you could see that 13 people from Shift are on Twitter.
General Twitter Advice
* What's Going On - Be more proactive in talking about what's going on in regards to your job search. So, mentioning things more often about interviews you have had or people you have met with. This keeps it fresh in people's heads that you are looking for a job.
* Reaching Out – Reach out to people you want to network with and say something like "Hi - I'm looking to break into social media. Is there anyone you can think of to refer me to?"
* Twitter Name – Your Twitter name should be your real name, as it will help in your search engine results.
COUNTRY SPECIFIC
Germany
You can use studiVZ and meinVZ to find and stay in touch with your friends, colleagues, and all those people you’ve lost contact with. StudiVZ is Germany’s largest student network with over 5 million members. Keep your friends up-to-date with what’s happening on the brighter side of life! (Very similar to Facebook, but for German speakers)
ONLINE NETWORKING ADVICE AND TIPS
http://www.quintcareers.com/Internet_networking_sources.html#online_communities
http://internships.about.com/od/networking/Professional_Networking.htm
http://www.forbes.com/bow/b2c/category.jhtml?id=263
http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/26/linkedin-networking-jobs-leadership-careers-vermeiren.html
http://www.intuitive.com/blog/rethinking_online_professional_networking.html
