Networking, Profession of Substance

We have all heard it, in this world of expanding connections, "it's not what you know, but who you know". Today social networks all over the internet are allowing us to expand the aspect of who we know. And even more amazing is the ease at which I can do this. Short-lived are the days in which professionals have to put on their sunday best, and attend the local chamber of commerce meeting, to establish meaning full business connections. Social Media, and social networking alike, make connecting to people EASY to say the least. A quick visit to linkedin.com, will reveal that it takes less information than a job application to become part of a vast community of professionals. Just fill in your first and last name, email, a brief password and some other basic info and, bingo your in. now you can search for professionals that you might already know, or even professionals that you wish to meet, it's all there.

Now with such ease at our fingertips it can be very easy to get carried away, requesting and connecting to anyone that I can. Yes , the phrase "it's who you know" does still carry weight today, but it is really who you know of who you know. What does that mean? lets take for example facebook, a social networking titan. On face book i have 5oo friends, give or take of those 500 I have probably seen 450, talked to 300, and actually consider 100 to be my friends.

In todays world connections are made everyday. I can go down a list of hundreds of people and tell you who they are, but knowing them is a different story. In todays world, especially the business corporate world, it is imperative that you separate yourself from everybody else. It can be done by answering one question that you have heard since your days on the playground..."What makes you so special". Used then as a way to make you feel like an out cast, the answer to this question is essential when it comes to networking. Know who you are and what you have to offer, and let it show when you meet other people. Of the people that you know (using the term "know" very lightly), who is it that knows who you are in return, and even more importantly would be willing to do something for you.

Each connection that is made, is much like a mini relationship. Of the people you know, work to establish a relationship, with the ones that you know the least, and maintain the relationships you currently have. This way you can truly expand who you know. Social media makes padding the stats easy, but in todays world, it is the substance, not the stats that you want. while sites like linked in are great resources, do not get carried away, use it for what it is and refine it for what you need specifically.

It's Here...

After reviewing some of the articles, I've come to think that we are already well into our mobile social agenda. Since the publishing of most of the articles; the phones that have recently been introduced into the market in 2H 2009 have all been outfitted with the latest technologies and applications meant to allow for faster communications with other people. Coupled with expiring contracts, both new and old customers are upgrading to these phones and using the applications that allow them to, map directions to a restaurant, find a business number, make purchases, take a picture and post it directly to Facebook. The list goes on so far for what can be done on a phone (thank you Apple, and home-brewers) that now parodies of what a phone can do are believable:

I think that a good example of the climb in mobile social networking, and all the communication that happens through phones is well illustrated with AT&T. After the huge surge in iPhone sales and subscribers, AT&T started to notice that their 3G network began to cripple and many calls were being dropped. This is due in part to all the data transmission happening with the iPhone users. The majority of iPhone owners are using their devices constantly to interact with the internet, Facebook, MMS, and app downloads. Now if users weren't doing this frequently AT&T wouldn't have much problem keeping available bandwidth open to everyone, but that is not the case. At any moment here in DC, you can have a group of tens of thousands of people sending an MMS to someone else, or another group of thousands interacting on Facebook, and another group downloading an app or playing an online game on their phone. When this happens all the bandwidth available from the towers drop and calls cannot be made or may be dropped. For AT&T this is a problem which they need to correct, but for mobile social media it's a sign that people want to interact as much as possible, whenever possible.