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Every man and his dog are social networking – everyone, that is, except the crusty old conservatives. We look at why accountants, engineers and lawyers aren’t wholly embracing the online social revolution – without implying they are all either old or crusty - and how to get them on board.
Barack’s doing it. But barristers aren’t.
The whole world is social networking. Middle managers are making connections on LinkedIn. Middle-aged mums are giving away state secrets on Facebook. And Britney Spears – or a literate member of Britney’s entourage – is sharing the former Mouseketeer’s fascinating observations about life on Twitter. But there has been one group who have been largely resolute in their resistance to social networking: the professionals.
Why professionals aren’t social networking
We’re not talking here about curmudgeonly, old professionals who don’t have an email address and who still think the PC is a passing fancy. We’re talking about people who use the net to unearth some arcane legal precedent and to book their vacations in the Maldives but who aren’t active on Facebook or LinkedIn. Why are web-literate professionals giving new-age networking the cold shoulder?
There are 5 main reasons professionals aren’t as excited about social networking sites (SNS) as the rest of the population:
- Fear of being hassled by wannabes
- Fear of giving offence by rejecting
- Fear of exposing personal details and contacts
- Fear of appearing to approve someone you can’t vouch for
- No association-sanctioned social network.
1. Fear of being hassled by wannabes
Some people look at social networking and think, wow, now I can reach anyone!!! Others look at social networking and think, sacre bleu, now anyone can reach me!!!
It’s probably fair to say that more professionals have the latter reaction than the former. Professionals tend not to be natural networkers and hate the idea of being henpecked by shameless, social climbing, self-promoters. Or, worse, headhunters.
2. Fear of giving offence by rejecting
A lot of professionals join LinkedIn because someone they know invites them. They then happily accept the invitations of a bunch of people they know. That’s fine. But they get upset when they’re approached by someone they barely know – or, worse, don’t like. But this person is quite influential and they don’t want to risk the repercussions of rejecting their invitation. So they accept – and open up a whole new can of worms.
3. Fear of exposing personal details and contacts
Unfortunately, once you accept someone as a connection on a typical social networking site, they have access to all your personal details: your mobile number, email address, and holiday snaps of you in your Speedos. Worse, they can see and make contact with all your contacts. Which brings us to …
4. Fear of appearing to approve someone you can’t vouch for
Once you accept someone into your network on LinkedIn it can appear they have your stamp of approval. But they don’t necessarily, do they? They might just be someone you didn’t want to offend. And you just hate the idea that one of your real contacts might accept them into their network on the basis that they were in yours.
5. No association-sanctioned social network
Ultimately, however, professionals aren’t social networking because professionals aren’t social networking. What’s the point of belonging to a network that doesn’t include most of your peers? If your whole association belonged to a site – and you could pool your collective contacts, knowledge and influence – that would be really something. But professional associations have been holding off because of the aforementioned privacy concerns of their members.
Will professionals ever take to social networking?
Professionals clearly haven’t been among the early adopters of social networking. But, if their reservations can be addressed, there is every reason to believe they would take it up with alacrity. It would allow them to:
- stay in touch with people they know
- make contact with people they’d like to know
- raise their profiles
- find groups with similar professional interests
- get answers to vexing problems
- discuss contentious issues
- influence policy
- learn about events
- generally stay up-to-date with what’s happening.
What would make professionals embrace social networking?
What will turn the tide? What will finally entice professionals to throw their considerable weight behind social networking? Professionals will come to the SNS party when:
- entry is restricted to qualified members
- “acquaintances” can be handled without giving access or offence
- they have greater privacy over their information
- their association sanctions and populates a site en masse.
Fortunately, that solution is now at hand.
Social networking for members of professional associations
issociate is a social networking site designed specifically for professionals that:
- is only open to members of professional associations
- lets you discreetly handle unwanted invitations
- gives you control over who sees what
- is managed by and has the imprimatur of your association
- finally lets you explore the potential of social networking.
If you’d like to see why issociate is the social networking site professionals have been waiting for, contact us.
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