Last week, I moderated a panel discussion, “Harnessing the Power of Online Social Networks.” The panel included Jeff Fisher, author of Identity Crisis!, Susan Rich of Rich Writing Creative Services, Elgé Premeau, an eMarketing Strategist, and Adrienne Fritze of Working Artists, LLC.
The discussion was lively, and very informative, covering sites such as LinkedIn, Biznik, MySpace, Flicker, Naymz, and a smattering of others.
Each panel member picked a site that made a difference in their success, and each approached the discussion from a different point of view. Jeff, for example, chose to speak as an author of books, rather than as a designer. Surprisingly, Jeff said that MySpace was pretty successful for him. “Huh?,” you might say. Well, he takes a different approach than what you’d normally find on the site. Instead of a personal lean, he has slanted the content more towards strictly business. He reported great blog traffic success from it.
Elgé Premeau spoke on Biznik, and how answering questions, and really, just participating has helped her land some articles being published in various corporate newsletters and web sites. Adrienne Fritze spoke about her success on the site Naymz, and how it has really aided in her site traffic. Susan Rich came from a writers perspective, and rightly so, since the web is made up of mostly words. She explained that (as I have said before) your story is what people want to read. It is the first door to getting to know you, and it could be the tipping point on contacting you for a job.
I will be discussing this topic further, but for now, I thought I’d introduce you to the topic. It’s an important one, and online networking is a new world that has no real boundaries.