Top 5 Bummers Of Online Social Networking
by Rebecca Button on February 20th, 2008
You’ve heard the countless praises of online social networking, but as with anything, there is some bad that comes with all the good. And so I give you the five biggest bummers of participating in online social networking.
5. Scams
This one is pretty easy to understand but very important to consider. There is plenty of white-collar crime that goes down on the internet and social networking sites are not exempt. The anonymity the internet provides opens the door to con-artists and scammers so you have to beware.
4. There’s so many - How do you keep up?
Since the explosion of Myspace and Facebook (personal oriented) and LinkedIn (business oriented), social networking sites have been springing up everywhere. So which ones do you join? If you join too many, it could become a full time job keeping up with all those different networks. If you don’t join enough, you could be missing out on valuable networking opportunities. Where do you draw the line?
3. The stereotype of joining for self-interested reasons
Let’s be honest. Most people (who are not Gen Yers) are going to be joining these networks to promote their business. And if you are one of these people that’s fine. BUT, you’re not the only one who knows that. So you are going to have to fight, or rather work that much harder to get people to believe that you are truly interested in them/their business.
2. Time and resources
Whether you join many or few networking communities, you will have to commit time and resources to the task of creating and maintaining any relationships you might form. And even after all of this work it’s possible you may not even glean any postitive results! While the relationships you can form can be good (or dare I say, great) for business, you’ll have to weigh the return on investment here.
1. It’s impersonal
There’s no two ways about it. Networking the ‘old fashioned’ way allowed people to read body language, watch immediate reactions and learn first hand what others’ businesses do and what problems they are facing. While the internet is quite "instant" it has enabled delays between personal communication and this has damaging effects on business. There’s really nothing that compares to face to face interaction.
I would like to state here that I personally believe online social networking is crucial to e-commerce/business. There is a whole wide world (literally) of opportunity with this avenue and I recommend exploring it. Just keep in mind the other side of the coin as you make your decision! 