by Eric Reiss - 1 July 2004

 

Can social networks ruin friendships?

For the past year, I've avoided joining on-line social networks like Friendster, Spoke, and Ryze - quite frankly, I just didn't see the point. But yesterday, my persuasive friend, Susanne Kock, convinced me to join LinkedIn, an invitation-only "network of trust." In other words, you only connect with people you would be willing to recommend professionally.

Let's keep it professional
"Recommend professionally" were the keywords for me - I sure don't have time to chat with folks merely because they appreciate good cocktails and bad spy novels. That's also why I never carry business cards on airplanes.

 

Let's keep it professional

"Recommend professionally" were the keywords for me - I sure don't have time to chat with folks merely because they appreciate good cocktails and bad spy novels. That's also why I never carry business cards on airplanes.

Just to show I was a team player, I sent a couple dozen invitations to people I truly respect and trust. That was yesterday. This morning, I discovered a dozen "Connect on LinkedIn?" invitations" from other members who want to link up with me. Flattering, but...

Some of these are colleagues who simply beat me to the invitational punch - and I'm delighted to connect with them. But what do I do about the others? These invitations are from people I know - and frequently like - but wouldn't necessarily recommend professionally. Like "Crazy Hugo," who's one of the most brilliant, yet one of the most unreliable people I know.

If I say "no" to an invitation, I'll undoubtedly offend someone. But if I say "yes," I've undermined the whole purpose of the network

Catch/connection 22.

 

Popularity contest
Browsing through LinkedIn, I discovered two very distinct networking participants: people who really take the ideas of respect and trust seriously, and those for whom a high number of personal connections is clearly a benchmark for popularity.

I've now browsed through networks containing hundreds, and even thousands of "respected and trusted" connections. Honestly, I can't help but think these people are merely showing off their address books. Yet as a consultant whose networking abilities are a key competitive factor, should I be showing off, too? It's tempting, but then again, I don't want to give away the crown jewels of my organization either.

So who should I invite?
Thus far, I've managed to keep my connections pretty honest. For example, I've not invited the movers-and-shakers I've met - but whose presence on my list would be misleading. After all, there are quantum leaps from "met once" to "know" to "respect" to "trust." Nor have I invited friends who have really impressive jobs, but are not necessarily part of my "professional" network.

That said, it's terribly tempting to invite a casual acquaintance just so you can peek at their own list of connections. Tempting...but dishonest.

The future of social networks?
I suspect that LinkedIn, Orkut, Ryze, and the many other networking outfits on the web, are merely a fad. And that means we will eventually move on to other hobbies.

There are two reasons I say this. First, even though the basic concepts may be fine, I simply don't think any of us can maintain the discipline needed to keep our networks honest (and therefore useful). After all, wouldn't you choose to weaken an on-line network rather than risk losing a friend?

Second, what is the long-term value of these tools? I've already spent a lot of time thinking about whom to invite and administering my profile. Barring some amazing business lead crashing through my spam filter via LinkedIn, my return on investment is probably going to be pretty low.

And in parting, do take a look at Lou Rosenfeld's excellent article describing his thoughts about Google's own social-network offering, Orkut. Hmm. Maybe I should invite Lou?

Comments or questions?

 

6 July - Stig Andersen tells me...
...that it's almost impossible to break a connection once you've made one. It took him a lot of effort and no fewer than four e-mails to Linkedin. This is starting to worry me...

7 July - I'm contacted by a friend "two degrees away"
Gunnar Langemark sent me a request from my old pal, Joe Sokal, who wants to get in touch with me. I stopped counting the clicks after about 87. I still don't have Joe's address - but now - with Gunnar's blessing and LinkedIn's back-end, Joe has mine. But let's assume for a moment that I wanted to see Joe's address before I responded (for security, for example, or because I don't want to go through the LinkedIn rigormarole). LinkedIn won't let me do this - clearly, they want to register our connection - even before we've made one. I don't like where this is going...

8 July - my client Allan...
..,who is the CEO of a big organization, is also LinkedIn. "I can use it for some things, but not for others [I don't yet know what he meant by this]...but it's interesting. I'm going to see where this leads us."

28 July 2006 - Mike Griebel asked for an update
Well, I now have 117 contacts. About half of these are folks I've invited, and the other half is from folks I know who have invited me. I've generally accepted those that arrived. The exceptions were professional contact-collectors - the folks I've never heard of who have amassed thousands of names. Leave your Skype on, and you'll be contacted by a lot of these people, too.

Unfortunately, I still haven't found any truly useful way to use this service. In the long haul, I think individual groups - professional interest, hobbies, politics, etc. - will use LinkedIn as a base from which they can extract (or link to) member data. As far as LinkedIn's original "network of trust" concept is concerned, I think this is well and truly dead.

Interestingly, LinkedIn seems to be one of the healthier survivors in this field; I don't hear much about Ryse and the others any more. On the other hand, there are the huge catch-alls, like MySpace, which have arisen in recent years. But these, too, will probably find a new focus or function at some point.

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