Online networking – blurring lines between business and leisure.

Everyone’s talking about networking online through social and business focused websites. If you are doing business these days, it’s a must to be registered with a few of them as a way to connect to your potentional customers and business partners. If you are an employee, you can actually begin building your network of peers, recruiters, and employers before you start looking for a job. In case of future redundancy or plans of looking for another position you will have an established circle of people who are more likely to help you than those who don’t know you.

After registering with online networking websites after a while you may move towards meeting your networkers in the real world. Before you go for the meeting think about what you want to get out of it. Do you want to make business connections or new friends? The thin line between social and business networking can be easily crossed when our prospective business partners become our friends. And then I start thinking – is having business partners as my friends bringing me any new clients? Do I want to share with my business networkers all my private photos, thoughts, friends and family in e.g. on Facebook?

Blogs have enabled a new level of intimacy in the relationship with our customers. Not so long ago, blogs were mainly used by private users sharing their personal life. Now they’re a must on any company website to interact and communicate with customers.  So now I’m wondering – how much of the company’s life should we give out to the public, to our clients? The best way to answer this question would be to think about the kind of image we want to present. For example, a company organises a staff party, then shares it with the world by writing a post on the blog. This will make a better image of a company who cares about their employees. Where is the line? Do photos of staff after few drinks do any good to the company’s profile in the long run?

Are you doing some crazy stuff with your network people, exploring yourself, being open for experiments, being creative and so on? – Great! Share the experience with them and your friends. But putting photos or videos from your networking parties on your website with your professional profile I think may be a little bit too much.
And the latest – Twitter. It’s so easy to mix your private life’s posts with a professional profile. It’s another great tool to make connections. But you need to choose if these connections will be with new friends or new business partners.

Photo: Flickr Tea, two sugars