There are lots of various ways to network with people in Ireland, the pub, golf, organisations like the IIA, First Tuesday and IT@Cork and electronically there’s LinkedIn. I haven’t greatly researched this but the only business orientated social networking site that Irish people seem to use greatly is LinkedIn. Are there other sites that people use? Sure there’s mySpace and even Bebo which can be used for networking if you want it to be but LinkedIn is geared for business networking which while isn’t a whole different kettle of fish, certainly is fish with different stripes. Mixed metaphors are worth two in the bush.
I’m surprised that TCH via their RecruitIreland.com site or IrishJobs.ie haven’t started down that route. Perhaps instead Bebo will be the darkhorse and do something like this. Afterall if they can retain their Irish userbase then they’ll have more access to candidates than most of the job sites out there. Bebo Jobs anyone? A few more cells in a DB and hey presto, users can add lots of employment history and job preferences to their profiles. Actually is it one of the Irish Bebo investors that’s invested into some job site too?
Anyways, if you are on LinkedIn, say hello to me on it. This is my profile.
Bonus link Via Adam Platti is Guy Kawasaki’s guide to making a better LinkedIn profile. It’s like SEO for social networking! Makes sense.
I’ve been putting off joining LinkedIn for ages, on trust and general “not another bloody social network” grounds, but as you know I’ve just finally bitten the bullet. Still not sure it’ll achieve anything, but unless I start getting spam I guess it won’t break anything either!
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dahamsta
For business stuff, I only use LinkedIn. Plaxo was just spam hell. And only continental Europeans seem to use OpenBC/Xing.
The single greatest thing about LinkedIn is if you want to contact someone whose details you don’t have, chances are that someone in your network will have them and you can see that. I’ve done this several times.
Damien,
Linked in is the only one I use. I was introduced to it 2 years back by somebody non-techie but with a great business sense. Doesn’t get a higher recommendation than that.
Paul
I’ve used Linkedin, Ecademy & OpenBC/Xing over the years.
Ecademy is mostly a useless collection of coaches and “guru’s” and holds no comemrcial value. It also tries to part you with your money at every opportunity.
OpenBC/Xing is relatively usefull but the Irish membership is rleatively low.
Linkedin has come out on top in every way; it is the only online network that really aims at the business user and has helped me time and time again to get into contact with people that were able to provide real added value. A good test is to do a search on some of these networks for some of your own contacts that you would consider “serious business people” you will see that you will find most of them on Linkedin.
As for Plaxo; I have never seen this as a networking tool. Instead it is just a great way of keeping my addressbook up to date..
E.
[…] After coming across it on some other blog posts, I’ve been poking around LinkedIn for a while. For the unintiated, LinkedIn is a social netweok site, geared towards business networking. You set up a profile, create networks, make/get recommendations, and (if all goes according to plan) you then gets loads of new business / a better job. Kinda like a grown-up, serious version of Bebo or MySpace, I suppose. But without the madness, mayhem and fun […]