Mediaboss Marketing

Michael Barr

February 10, 2011

Michael Barr

Would your best friend describe you as a "social" person? Do you like to "network" and meet new people? If you're an engineer, your answer is probably something like, "Um, no and no. Now can I slink back to my cube, Mr. Nosy?"

The growth of "social networking" in its many forms is a remarkable phenomenon that's proving powerful enough to reshape the economic landscape and trouble despotic regimes. For example, if (six-year-old!) Facebook were a country, it would already be the world's 3rd most populous.

That we the engineerswho ultimately make stuff like this possibleare mostly a loose band of individuals self-selected for our lack of people skills (a key trait that allows us to sit in cubes all day focusing deep-deep-deep on new technology) may explain why so many of us are luddites when it comes to using this "social" technology.

Some of us rationalize that we don't like connecting with people offline, so why would we do that online. Others that reading status updates from other people will take valuable time away from more important stuff. This fun video sums it all up:

LinkedIn Every user on LinkedIn creates a "public profile page," which is something like a resume. Your profile gives your current job title, the name of your employer, and the nearest big city. If you want, your public profile also has space for you to expand on what you do in your current job or in your career generally. You can also list where you went to University, what you majored in, and your past employment historycomplete with praise quotes from former colleagues and managers.

When you "connect" to another LinkedIn user, they get to see your private information too. This includes (by default) your e-mail address and phone number, as well as the names of your other connections. The majority of LinkedIn users seem to have on the order of 100 connections once they get setup. Your "in" list consists mostly of current and past colleagues, perhaps some classmates or other chums, etc.

Although it is not specifically advertised this way and has many other valuable features, I think of LinkedIn as primarily my cloud-based self-updating address book. It's an address book in that I can easily search for your phone number or e-mail address once we connect. If I can't remember or spell your last name, I can search by first name and anything else I can remember about you, like the name of an employer. And, as long as you take the few minutes to update your profile page and contact info each time you change jobs, we'll never lose touch with each other. Wow!

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Social networking for engineers