Recently, one of the participants on the NAFSA-TechSIG group asked:
I have been using both XING and LinkedIn for some years and have yet to find any value in it. How do you use them to gain anything from it? [Our organization] uses Facebook for our student community which works very well – but professionally XING and LinkedIn don't appear to offer anything…
I thought about the question for a while before answering because there is a difference in the various social networks that were mentioned.
First, MySpace (more than 65+ million visitors per month as of February 2008) and Facebook (28+ million) are currently the two networking sites used most by US college and university students. In fact, some studies have now reported that 75% or more of students on some campuses basically ignore their campus email accounts in favor of communicating almost solely through social networking sites!
It's also clear that the most rapidly expanding age cohort for these sites is are older adults! More than half of MySpace visitors are now 35+ and older. The fastest growing segments for Facebook are 25+ and 12-17 (your future students). These networks are also rapidly expanding to other countries. For example, it is estimated that more than 1/4 the population of Norway has a Facebook account.
It's important, then, for international education professionals to take social networking sites seriously and learn how to best utilize what they offer in order to communicate with the students they want to reach. I don't see this trend ending. Many of these students will take these networks and their behavior on them into graduate schools and employment after they graduate. It has already changed — and will continue to change — some of the ways people connect and communicate with each other
LinkedIn and XING are clearly for professional networking. These sites are not places to find students, they are places to connect with others in your field and, more importantly, with those outside your field.
While LinkedIn began with more American participants and XING was originally more European, it is clear that both sites are attracting more and more participants from around the world. They offer good basic networking services, currently at no cost to users. "Premium" services are available for a fee. LinkedIn and XING have both done some major upgrades to their services that are making them even more valuable to participants.
XING recently announced that they will be partnering with another USA-based networking site, ZoomInfo to provide
"XING's 2 million-plus members with immediate access to profiles on nearly 36 million business people and 3.8 million companies directly from the XING platform. Furthermore, XING Premium Members will have the ability to contact over 18 million professionals directly and securely. ZoomInfo's 4.5 million unique monthly visitors will also be able to join XING's business network directly with a simple two-click process.
There is power in personal connections. Social networking sites help us to clearly understand our connectedness to others. For example, LinkedIn tells me that my current 134 contacts "link you to 480,400+ professionals" only one or two connections (people) away from me.
Update: At the time of posting this to the blog, I now have 140 connections that link me to almost 600,000 people!
It is six degrees of separation taken to a whole new level — accompanied by clear visual representations of exactly what relationships link me to another person. Whenever I use these sites, I am constantly remindedof? how small and interconnected the world is. I think that's beneficial to our work — and to our world as a whole
In addition to reminding me of the social matrix, these sites also allow me to keep up with the current contact information of my contacts without having to update my physical address book. They serve as a virtual Rolodex (for those who can remember that "ancient" tool!). For example, I've had two colleagues change jobs within the past few months. As soon as they updated their profile, this information was immediately reflected in my listings for them. I didn't have to wait for an e-mail (or, worse, a bounced email!) to stay informed.
These networks can have other significant benefits. I think the best personal networks are those that include a broad or wide approach to networking. Once I have connections in a field or area, I can go deeper through them. If international education professionals participate and are linked to a broad range of individuals from many different industries and fields (not just academics), we raise our profession's credibility and ability to be a resource to others. This can only be good for those who work in international education and intercultural communication.
I have been amazed at the connections that I have found and, in some cases, reconnected with through social networking sites:
- high school friends who are now significant and leading professionals in their chosen fields
- former NAFSAns now in other industries (I offer a warm "shout out" to former NAFSAn Bryan Person – who continues his relationship to the international education profession through his participation on the NAFSA-TechSIG list and who founded Social Media Breakfast!)
- friends from my non-professional activities who are interesting and valuable networking connections, such as a folk dancing friend who is a former member of the European Parliament
Finally, good networking enhances your professional life and career. For example, I can attest that the last five jobs offers I received began with personal links/contacts who either had or knew about a position that made them think of me. In fact, a recent major conference on Web 2.0 (social media and more) had a session where HR professionals said that, upon getting an application for a position opening, they look at LinkedIn and Facebook first to see if the candidate had a profile before deciding to look at the resume. They were confirming the tech savvy of those potential employees.
So this is a long answer to why I think social/professional networking sites, used carefully and wisely, can be of benefit to international educators — both in their work with students as well as in professional networking.
For those of you who want to consider testing the waters of social networking, I invite you to use me as a way of beginning to explore this world.
I participate in a number of social networks and my profiles are a safe starting point for beginners or intermediates. You can find them listed in the far right column of this blog. In order to connect with me and access my information, you will need to create a minimal profile on whatever site you choose to begin with. As you start out, keep the personal information you list about yourself minimal until you understand the network, know your comfort level and figure out the privacy options available on the site.
Let's explore this together. I hope to? see you in my network soon!
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