SocialNetworking.com

Jeremiah Owyang wrote an excellant article this morning entitled “Five Ways Web Professionals Should Be Proactive In a Recession“. It’s an excellant read, and i’m not going to steal away pageviews from Jeremiah from revealing all his points. But he did have two that I thought applied to what we are working on at SocialNetworking.com:

1. Use Online Networking Tools to Connect

2. Attend Real World Events

Both of these items directly involve networking - both online and off - in order to keep your noticed, befriended, and in “the loop” (my words). This is not anything new - even during the “good items” before last year the more people you knew, the better off you were. These days, you cannot thrive by yourself. Actually you might want to change that world to “survive”.

For those of us with hundreds/thousands of followers on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Friendfeed - that might be something we take for granted. Most of us probably have been on a while (or probably in rare cases are a celebrity or something similar). But what about those JUST getting into the social networking game? As a website developer and wordpress nut (NOT a self-labeled “social media expert”) i’m encountering these types more and more - ad agencies, marketing companies, and even small time web development guys are wanting to jump into social networking and fast. The problem isn’t that they don’t recognize the importance of social networking - the problem is that they don’t have the time to find and follow the right people to build a strong network.  How does someone in the clothing industry quickly find and build a quality network, for example? 

In this economy, as mentioned by Jeremiah, it’s vital now more than ever to get more contacts. Quality contacts, not mindless followers. We as experts (or at least experienced enough in online social networking) ask ourselves daily how we can show the value/worth of social media and social networking to those new to the game. The next step here, the question that we are working over here and the question i present to everyone, is how do you help them to build an efficient social network as fast as possible? One that can potentially be part of the vital in the times we now find ourselves in.

BTW, if you aren’t following Jeremiah - and it doesn’t matter what industry you are in - if you are serious about social networking and media, follow him.