Thursday, February 24, 2011

LinkedIn

If you are anything like me, you are overwhelmed with all of the social media sites that everyone seems to have accounts on. Twitter, Tumblr, Blogger, Facebook and now LinkedIn...how do people do it and are they all necessary?
My most recent online endeavor has been LinkedIn, "the place" for business people to network. Just like every other soon-to-be college graduate, I signed up for an account, made a profile and badgered a few people into signing up so I would have some connections. After that...I pretty much left it alone.
Maybe the joke is on me, but recently I have been hearing about the "joys" of being a LinkedIn user. Needless to say, I logged back into my measly profile and started to try to find what all the buzz was about. Now, maybe I am not the only one who feels this way, but is LinkedIn the Skipper to Facebook's Barbie? These new features, like LinkedIn Events and advertising space, seem to be...well, kind of lame.
Now, introducing attendees to an event beforehand, or making the events list available for all those who have RSVP-ed is a smart tool for the LinkedIn team to bring on. But when do these social networking sites begin to look the same? Friending them on Facebook, connecting with them on LinkedIn...how much should we be connected to a person that we don't really know? Is that business appropriate? And whatever happened to the awkward first meetings? Will we all eventually greet each other by saying "Oh, yes! Hi...I just friended you..and yes, haha, we are connections. What was your last name again?" or "Hey! Saw you are going to Florida this weekend on your Twitter, I'm Lauren...its great to meet you."
Where is that line of social networking overload and are we quickly approaching it?

1 comment:

  1. TOTALLY agree.
    social media overwhelms me and i miss awkward first meets.
    blah. let's go back to the 90's.

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