Members of social networking sites tend to fall into 2 categories – those who use the power and reach of these websites to advance their careers – and those who feel used. If you’re in the latter category, you’ll be pleased to hear there’s a new way to participate without feeling exploited.
2 categories of social networking users
Members of social networking sites tend to be either highly proactive or almost entirely reactive.
Proactive social networkers
This energetic category of user will:
- scour their connections to make more connections
- seek out like-minded groups
- track down people who can help realise their vision
- happily approach people they don’t know.
Reactive social networkers
This less engaged category of user will typically only ever visit their social networking site to do one thing:
- accept (or reject) an invitation from another.
This is where typical social networking sites can leave you feeling a little tawdry.
Why people currently feel used
If you’re approached by someone you’ve never heard of, you can reject their invitation. But what if you know them – and you just don’t like them? It can be hard to reject in that situation, can’t it? Particularly if they’re influential within your industry. So most people will accept the invitation – but they won’t feel good about it.
The problem with opening the door to strangers
There are 2 reasons people feel uncomfortable about accepting into their networks people they either don’t know – or don’t like:
- It appears they have your approval – when they don’t
- They get access to your contacts.
Why some professionals have resisted LinkedIn
When these interlopers approach your network, your legitimate connections might feel obliged to accept them because, “Well, if he’s a mate of JB’s, he must be OK”. It’s this lack of discretion that has prevented many professionals from embracing LinkedIn and other mass social media sites. Fortunately, a new social network has solved the problem.
issociate – social networking without feeling used
issociate was designed specifically for professionals and this inability to exercise discretion was one of the main problems we sought to address. Here’s how we solved it.
Categorise your contacts
The first advance is that issociate lets you classify your contacts into different categories:
- Personal Contacts
- Business Contacts
- Acquaintances.
If you get an invitation from someone you don’t consider a genuine contact – but you don’t want to risk offending them – you can add them to your Acquaintances. How does this help?
Giving you control over who sees what
Once you have the ability to classify your contacts, you get to choose who sees which elements of the following:
- Your job title and organisation
- Your contact details
- Your CV
- Your professional associations
- Your contacts.
Personal Contacts will generally be allowed to see everything and Business Contacts almost everything. Acquaintances, however, will typically not be allowed to see either your contact details or your contacts. You’ll let them in the door, but you’ve curtained off the red velvet cubicles.
Avoid giving offence but retain discretion
issociate allows professionals to feel more comfortable about participating in social networking because it lets you:
- avoid rejecting an invitation that might give offence; but
- still protect the privacy of your information.
issociate lets you use social networking – without feeling used.
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