Social Networks

Is it possible that i'm involved in online communities MORE since leaving Netflix? Last month, for instance, I wrote the blog and started exploring NING... and did the usual explorations of experience on Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin, blah blah...

But you lie in an ICU for a few days, where your laptop is your only solid form of communication... and you are hungry to connect with other stroke patients, or to provide updates to friends and family. It's a strange transformation: Neflix was FULL of smart, interesting, fun people who I shared with every day. Now I'm a NORMAL person, and i'm home a lot, and finding ways to connect and share are far more challenging.

But I will say this: after years of both research and experience, I'm nearly certain that large social networks* really only serve one of two purposes: to get you a job or to get you laid. That's about it. Linkedin. The former. Facebook, MySpace, HotorNot... the latter. I'd guess all big network success stories fall into one of these two camps. Consequently, I don't think Facebook will ever really be ideal for finding a job, and Linkedin will perhaps always be marginal at finding you a date.

(* Smaller online communities are different - focused and useful in different ways, and i'm not talking about those.)

Hold on. I must digress. I'm not the first to suggest this, but i support the notion that the core activity in any social network is simply connecting to other people. You connect and connect and find people and invite them to connect... and once you've sort of burnt out on this, there doesn't seem to be much other point. You're there to connect. Facebook is great because it's a universal directory of humans. Great for connecting. Once that is done... well... no one is really sure. If you suddenly find yourself single these networks are quite the resource, i'm certain. And if you are slowly (or rapidly) thinking about getting a job... as I seem to be...

I joined Linkedin about 4 years ago. I think they had just started and a friend said "let's try it." Later, when I was at Netflix, it seemed pretty good for helping source new employees, or researching them in some way. I continued adding connections.

So there i am on Linkedin. After 4 years of investment... of connecting for no good reason, I've got about 150 "friends" there. Business connections of various kinds. And as Linkedin is quick to point out, those 150 people have friends, and those people have friends, and that circle represents about 1.5 million people. Friends of friends. And today I care. I'm surfing around, thinking about what people are doing and what seems interesting and who might need my unusual set of skills.

But the point is that it really confirms my fundamental belief that all these communities only are deeply useful in a couple of specific cases. It just so happens that these are powerful and common situations (needing to date or to work). And so here I am. Surfing through my networks, playing on ning and glancing at Facebook, and checking in at Linkedin every day. You can build this stuff all day, but you really need to be on the other side to see these products clearly.