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Like this article? We recommend Professional Networking Goals

Professional Networking Goals

Before we can evaluate the best network for your time, you need to clarify your goals. Professional networking goals can include the following:

  • Meet colleagues and find thought leaders to help you with professional development
  • Establish a network to have influence as a thought leader
  • Find and build entrepreneurial partnerships
  • Network your way to greater publicity opportunities
  • Finding and developing relationships with new prospects for sales purposes

LinkedIn Thought Leadership and Groups versus Facebook Groups

Both Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to create and moderate discussion groups. LinkedIn Groups are used in a more professional capacity. Even in B2B associations I've spoken to, at least one-third of the attendees raise their hand when I ask how many participate in LinkedIn Groups. A group I started on the topic of Facebook Marketing & Advertising has grown to 600+ members over the last year with almost no promotion whatsoever. This is a great place to meet people, grow professionally, and impress people with your own thought leadership.

Facebook Groups can also work well, but usually are more personally oriented, or B2C in focus. However, I am in several groups in my own niche (social media and online marketing) and they have led to career-changing opportunities for me. As I explain later in this article, putting professional relationships on a positive, personal footing can be a powerful accelerator for your career.

Professional Perception: LinkedIn's Resume 2.0 versus the Facebook Profile

These days, everyone should have a LinkedIn profile. I've had one for more than three years, and I've accumulated 27 recommendations from colleagues and clients. In fact, I could probably have twice that many if I were more aggressive about requesting them.

Some potential employers and clients use LinkedIn more than others. But those that do will be positively influenced by recommendations. I call it "Resume 2.0" because, like other web 2.0 innovations, it allows your connections to contribute. It's a social resume.

Not everyone uses Facebook enough to go looking at their professional contacts' Facebook profiles, but if you do, you'll want to have a good-looking Timeline cover photo and make sure your privacy settings keep things looking professional. In many industries, Facebook is not the place to go to connect professionally.

But for those in social media, high tech, and traditional media, there's a good chance that non-friends will check out your profile at some point. This is how we sometimes become aware of new authors, thought leaders, and celebrities on the rise.

And since people can subscribe to your public content (if you allow them to), it makes sense to pay attention to what the public view of your profile looks like. If you click your name in the upper-right corner of Facebook and then click the down-arrow next to the gear by "Activity Log", you can "View As" and then click "public" to see how things look to non-friends. Scroll down and make sure what you're seeing is what you want to show the world.

Some people barely use Facebook[md]or use it only to connect with fewer than 100 friends and family members. These people clearly have a higher threshold for what they look for in a Facebook "friend", so you would request their Facebook friendship only if you were really close.

When you find someone with 500 or more friends, you can probably request their friendship without disturbing them, even if you're only moderately close. But if you have any doubts about how they'll respond, or you think it might make your professional connection uncomfortable, it's best to wait on that friendship request.

Professional/Personal Crossover

While there are situations where you wouldn't Facebook with a customer or colleague, there are other situations where the personal connection of Facebook leads to greater business opportunities.

It makes sense that you would keep things professional, not personal, with prospective customers, new customers, journalists, employers, and bosses. But what happens when you take a customer fishing and become real friends? What happens when you have a drink with a journalist and now you really know them? Are you more likely to keep a customer who's a friend? Is a journalist more likely to go to you as a source when they're also a friend? You bet.

This can't always happen, but it will happen at times, and if you're a friendly and generous person, it will happen more often. So someone who starts as a LinkedIn contact may become a Facebook friend. When does this happen? If they request it, that's a sign. Or if you feel there are enough signs from your interactions[md]if you spend more than that 5 percent of small talk time talking about the weather or your pets and it moves to real self-disclosure, chances are you've moved into the friend zone.

Not everyone uses Facebook privacy settings correctly, but you can put people into different lists, if you want, depending on how much you trust them.

You may have a close friends group that can see everything, including your embarrassing college photos. You might have an acquaintance group that sees some of your personal life, but not too much. And then the public (anyone from the web who's not a friend) may see little or nothing. The public view needs to be your most professional persona.

The key is to understand Facebook privacy settings and keeping a close eye on the privacy setting you designate for each photo and post. If you do a good job of this, you can enable subscribers and let anyone subscribe to your public updates, which makes Facebook a lot like Twitter for those subscribers, but with better multimedia.

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