http://www.dailyblogtips.com/are-social-networks-like-the-fashion-industry
Are Social Networks Like the Fashion Industry?
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The question then becomes: will it ever stop? How many times you joined a social network, created a profile, invited friends to join, and then abandoned it completely after a couple of months? Are we looking for something that will add real value for our lives, or we are just following what everyone else is doing?
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TO WHICH I ADD MY COMMENT:
“Social Networking” a la MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, and LinkedIn has a wisp of value. If you can catch it?
It does allow you to “reach” people you would not normally see, speak to, or even know about in the hum drum drone of daily activities.
Where folks delude themselves is that: this is the “networking” that all the career counselors urge people to do. You know, to “tap the hidden job market” and make a grazillion dollars per year. Or was that per month?
In a recent experiment, on LinkedIn, (Disclaimer: I am not an open networker who will exchange LinkedIn links with just anyone to generate a high number. I have standards. I’m not a connection slut.) Anyway, in my recent experiment, I was only able to exchange an email, phone call, im, or visit with about a third of my LinkedIn “network”. I was stunned at that!
In job search terms, one seeks to harness the power of weak associations by creating a granfaloon of people who will alert you when they see “YOUR JOB” go by on their radar.
What that third meant that I had about 600 less of those “weak connections” to use when I get laid off than I thought I had. AND Yes, I said “when I get laid off”!
That’s another delusion that people have. That employment is not transient. The days of the gold watch and pension is long gone. The only paycheck you are sure of is the one you’ve cashed.
So social networking gives these soon to be fired fools the illusion that they are “networking” like all the employment gurus tell them to do. What one really should be seeking to capture is a “conversation” with these people to get that “weak link association” working for you.
The social networking site that becomes the lingua franca of social networking sites will really have capture that value proposition IF and ONLY IF it encourages conversations. Then we can stop “churning” and start (to misquote an old I Luv Lucy episode) “conversating”.
imho
p.s., Speaking of delusions, we can add to the list of jumbo shrimp, Military Intelligence, honest lawyer and my all time favorite “a politician who wants change” to that list. Delusions are just memes that are wrong. Unfortunately government is one meme that can kill and impoverish us. Where my pitchfork and torch! Get the tar and feathers. The tax and spend folks of BOTH parties have escaped the asylum! We need to put them back in the nut house; not vote them into political office!
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Posted by reinkefj 
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