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Social Networking and CITT
A social network is an online community of people who share a common interest and seek to exchage ideas and information with similarly minded people. Networking about your profession or your career aspirations is becoming one of the more popular applications. With the rapid growth in social networking tools combined with a weak economy, connecting with others to find jobs or to obtain career advice is one of the fastest growing online applications. Popular methods of social and career networking include Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Getting started is easy, and the online novice can quickly become adept with the technology. But with all things, you still need to exercise caution when sharing personal information with others. In order to better serve the needs of their members, CITT has become actively involved in social networking. With the collective expertise of our membershp base, members can use social networking sites to share job tips and discuss issues impacting the industry. All methods of online professional or social interaction have their own strengths and limitations.
Facebook is a global social networking website operated by Facebook, Inc. Users build a profile, and then add any "friends" they so desire. Users can post their personal or professional views by starting a topic thread and then awaiting replies form their private group. Users can join groups based on any number of categories, including profession or professional affiliations. The pros of Facebook include fully interactive threads, the ability to create detailed messages and the capacity to post links or photos. The cons include the need to be logged on to fully particiapte and the tendancy for posts to stray off topic.
Twitter is a micro-blogging service that allows users to send and read short messages known as "tweets". Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the user's main profile page and are instantly delivered by email to subscribers known as followers. The pros of Twitter include its instantaneous nature and speed. The cons include limitations in messaging word count and the subsequent lack of detail users can provide.
LinkedIn is the most business oriented site of the three. It now has more than 50 million users worldwide. The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of trusted and known business contacts online. The people in each users list are known as "connections". The strength of LinkedIn lies in the contacts you develop, which can then be used for traditional face to face networking purposes. LinkedIn is not, however, a site that encourages casual socializing.
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