WWW: Career Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites are gaining popularity, particularly among the younger, more technologically-oriented generation. A number of these social networking sites, however, can be beneficial to job-seekers of any age to develop their career or find a new job.
The highest-ranked career social networking site is LinkedIn. The focus of LinkedIn is on developing careers, making business contacts and finding new jobs, rather than simply chatting or connecting with friends. As with most social networking sites, LinkedIn began with a few people who developed a Web site and invited others to join in. It grew exponentially from there. LinkedIn was founded in 2003 and in early 2009 claims that it has “over 36 million members in over 200 countries and territories around the world.”
Another career social networking site focused on “online business networking” with a growing membership list is XING. A relatively new site, XING went public in 2006 and according to their Web site, “over 7 million members already use XING to manage their business contacts.” Based in Hamburg, XING has a more international flavor, featuring networking opportunities in 16 languages “from London to Beijing.”
Other social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, are primarily used for interacting with friends, and friends of friends; however, these can also be beneficial to the job seeker, with certain precautions. When you set up your profile on these sites, you can allow or block access to areas such as personal “posts” that you might not a potential employer to view.
Twitter has become a very popular social networking site for personal contacts as well as business connections. Somewhat different than Facebook and MySpace, which encourage you to “chat” prolifically, Twitter is “a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices.” Posts on Twitter are limited to 140 characters, to keep messages short and to the point.
There is no cost to register for any of the social networking sites. In general, you only need to provide minimal information about yourself and a valid email address. Most career social networking sites offer specific groups you can join, for example if you are searching for a new job or are an aspiring new business owner and want to network with others in similar situations. You can use any or all of these career social networking sites to alert friends that you are job-seeking and to get connected with other members who can potentially help you develop your career.