Social business networking and e-commerce

Insights and Additions 3.2    Social Networking Sites for Business Professionals

Many business professionals use sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to promote their businesses. With the growing use of social networking by business professionals, there is a growing number of social networking sites focused on business users and meeting their needs. Some representative sites are:

      Biznik(biznik.com).Biznik is community of entrepreneurs and small businesses dedicated to helping each other succeed through the premise that collaboration beats competition. The site embraces people who are building real businesses, not looking for their next job. It’s for sharing your ideas, not posting your résumé. All Biznik members use their real names, and provide real data. Biznik editors review profiles for compliance with this policy. It’s the place where real conversations about small business and entrepreneurship are taking place. Biznik is not just online; it includes face-to-face meetings in order to build real, lasting business relationships.

      E. Factor(efactor.com). Over 750,000 members in 153 countries and 99 industries use this global network made by and for entrepreneurs. Members connect with like-minded people and investors.

      Ecademy(ecademy.com).Ecademy is a business network for creating contacts and sharing knowledge. Free membership allows you to introduce yourself by creating your profile, finding friends and colleagues, searching for new contacts, making new contacts by building your network, joining and/or running groups, commenting on blogs, and attending networking events. Higher levels of membership allow you to build trust by displaying a SafeNetworking badge on your profile when your identity has been verified; get found on Google when your profile and content is indexed by all major search engines; build your brand by hosting your own blog, posting Marketplace Adverts, and using advanced social media tools; and much more.

      LinkedIn(linkedin.com). More than 45 million professionals use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities. Members can reconnect with past colleagues and classmates quickly, connect with current colleagues, and power their careers by finding connections when looking for a job or new business opportunity. They complete and update profiles that help recruiters find jobs or businesses related to individual careers, get recommendations on their personal profile to help make the best impression possible, and add connections to people within organizations they are interested in joining. LinkedIn Answers is a network of industry experts willing to share advice—just ask the question.

      Xing.com(xing.com). More than 8 million members from over 200 countries using 16 languages find XING a powerful tool for doing business and promoting their careers. XING makes networking and professional contact management simple, with made-to-measure networking functions and services. The site shows you how people are connected, which is an excellent tool in generating new contacts of your own.

A similar service is provided by linkedin.com. The electronic job market can also create high turnover costs for employers by accelerating employees’ movement to better jobs. Finally, finding candidates online is more complicated than most people think, mostly due to the large number of résumés available online. The LinkedIn search engine can help employers quickly find the appropriate candidate. For more on social network sites for business professionals see Insights and Additions 3.2.

 (Turban 105)

Turban, Efraim.Introduction to Electronic Commerce for Ashford University, 3rd Edition.Pearson Learning Solutions.VitalBook file.

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