LinkedIn to Facebook: social mores of social networks (or are they social graphs?)

The topic of LinkedIn and Facebook has been everywhere this past week! I myself asked questions about the use of these tools in a forum to learn about how people are using them and what their perception was of the difference in social networking tools.

The big difference that wasn't noted in any of these responses is that Facebook is a platform. Facebook allows me access to innovative applications like Inner Circle - which lets me group my contacts and see in one glace what those in a given circle are all doing, like an rss per person. This is a huge time saver and allows me to stay in touch and keep my fingers on the pulse of the movers and shakers in my world. Link:
http://apps.facebook.com/innercircle

Social networking for me has to be more than about learning who do my contacts know, but what are they all doing? How many online campaigns do they have? What are their passions? What do we have in common? What do they need? How can I help them?

With respect to the level of discretion or lack of discretion, the younger gen is demonstrating with their online activity, I have to admit that the optimist in me wants to believe that living in a more transparent world might just result in an increase of individuals with integrity...probably not in the short term but maybe later.

I blogged about a similar topic last night--basically, my feeling torn between my (mostly anonymous) life as a mommy-blogger versus my 'real life' social networking on sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. Thanks for this thoughtful post.

I recently attended the Web Directions South conference in Sydney and made a real effort to meet people there as I find it quite hard to do.

Since then my Facebook friends have expanded three-fold (I now have about 10) because I added some of these people or they added me as a friend. Because they all have interests similar to mine I hope to maintain contact and if we're ever in the same state again it would be good to catch up.

So I think Facebook has its uses, but I won't be using it as a place to post photos of me or to share too much personal information because that's what my blog is for to a certain extent.

Jen at Semantically driven ( http://www.semanticallydriven.com/ ) and Safari suit ( http://www.safarisuit.com/ )

If it's social and it's a network of some kind, isn't it a social network?

Twitter kind of eluded me at first, and then I got into just posting random interestingness that I came across. But now it's starting to look like a log. A snail trail? Been there, done that, thought this, yadda yadda yadda....

Social? Until I see how directed messages are actually directed, it's more like a tree full of birds.

Laura Scott
BlogHer Contributing Editor for Technology & Web
design ( http://www.pingv.com ), snap ( http://scatteredsunshine.com ), blog ( http://www.rarepattern.com )

I'm of a (non-)generation that had computers come into our daily lives at a young enough age to be able to adapt and even thrive, but not so early that we did not have a pretty full experience of life without them. (Anyone who never had to deal with carbon paper in a typewriter is seriously blessed!) So it's always all been new, so I'm naturally curious about it all. But sometimes I guess the subtleties elude me.

For example, my Facebook page now says that last night at 11:28 I went to sleep. I have no idea what the heck that means, or how it got there. I find it kinda creepy, even though it's made up.

Laura Scott
BlogHer Contributing Editor for Technology & Web
design ( http://www.pingv.com ), snap ( http://scatteredsunshine.com ), blog ( http://www.rarepattern.com )

It's hard to get perspective when you're inside of something. I think only time will tell just how much our lives have changed from so much online archiving of all that we do.

Laura Scott
BlogHer Contributing Editor for Technology & Web
design ( http://www.pingv.com ), snap ( http://scatteredsunshine.com ), blog ( http://www.rarepattern.com )

I don't really see Twitter as a social network. Mostly I just use it as a platform to vent where I can't elsewhere.

I don't totally see the point in social networking. I mean, I can get the same thing and more joining a forum (like this one). Maybe I'm just getting old. MySpace scares me and freezes up when I try to use it anyway. I tried Vox, but found it daunting as well. The only social networks I'm even marginally active in is Last FM and maybe MyBlogLog.

Available Light ( http://kathy-p.blogspot.com ) & Five Dollar Radio ( http://fivedollarradio.blogspot.com/ )

New York Magazine (http://nymag.com/news/features/27341/) did a feature on this topic, on why young people are foregoing privacy for their 15(+) minutes of fame. As a person on the cusp of this generation, I still cannot offer a good explanation as to why. But I have to admit I am addicted to MySpace. Facebook, eh, I can live without (I agree, it's boring).

As cliche and embarrassing as it is, I met my husband on MySpace and his sister met her husband there as well. When asked outright, all of us claim some other in-person chance meeting (they at a vegan restaurant, us at a music store). I guess this is representative of my adult self being all-too conscious of the connotations of a MySpace romance, no matter how "legit" ours turned out to be. As a working professional I am also conscious of the things I post online, be they pictures or writings of any nature. You're right, you never know who is going to Google you and for what purpose.

As far as personal brand goes, I too agree that it is constantly being created and shaped by all online activities as well as personal words and actions. The supposed anonymity of the internet lures us in to a false sense of security, but all would do well to note that when you're online the world is watching.

Just the Way It Is ( http://www.justthewayitis.com ) - A laugh, an epiphany, a like-minded soul

Hi Laura!

what a great and thoughtful post on a very complex matter. (and thanks for the link :-) )

Over the past couple of days I've read a number of blogs by other social networking geeks like me, and have found that lots of us are thinking more about where and how we spread our Selves out across the internet--how we manage our online personnas. (I'll probably write on it later.) And your right that some of it comes down to building reputation. LinkedIn and Facebook (as well as other social networking sites and such) help us build reputation--also known as "personal brand." I used to find the concept of "personal brand" offensive (hey! I'm not a product!) but as an independent consultant, I now know that everything I do and every place I go online contributes to how I'm perceived by potential partners and contractors.

And when you think about it, when employers can google us at will, any of us who writes a blog, puts up a profile on LinkedIn or Facebook, or commments on a message board (without anonymity) is leaving an electronic trail that employers can find more cheaply and easily than they can do a legal background check.

I also agree very much with you assessment on the value of face-to-face interaction. It's very easy to get lost inside the world of the Internet and believe that everyone we meet on whatever site we're on (Twitter, etc.) is our "friend" or that we're making a meaningful connection with that person. Well, we *are* making a connection, but as I've found out, that connection doesn't begin to have truly deep meaning until we are f2f. We are indeed social creatures and we need that social interaction beyond the screen to be truly connected (IMO)

Tish Grier
professional blogger/consultant/writer
blogging at
the Constant Observer ( http://spap-oop.blogspot.com )

I decided to jump into Twitter a few days ago and I'm already ridiculously hooked. The key is who you "follow" and who "follows" you. That's what makes a Twitter community fun. Yes, it was midnight the other night, but I was exchanging tweets with a tech thought leader in Australia and marveling at the wonder of social media.

It's not just "what are you doing now," it's more of "what are you thinking about now?" There are some people out there who think about really interesting stuff.

Sheila Scarborough
Family Travel blog ( http://blogs.bootsnall.com/Seafarer )
Perceptive Travel blog ( http://perceptivetravel.com/blog/ )

but then I might be a bit special situation as I live in a total different country then most of my friends and family. I have also been moving quit a bit while growing up, so to me facebook is a great place to reconnect with long lost friends.

Dina

dynamitt ( http://dynam1tt.blogspot.com )