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eConsultant - Sanjeev Narang - writes notes on technology, personal growth, personal MBA, productivity and time management.

From Contact to Contract—Social Networking on the Internet


An excellent article on the Social Networking ....

EMT, Winter 2005: - Cover Story: From Contact to Contract—Social Networking on the Internet

"From Contact to Contract—Social Networking on the Internet
By Lisa Daniel
Social networking sites offer some possibilities for finding candidates, but there are downsides as well.

Ed Weaver, vice president of Xtel Consulting Group in Dallas, was building up the new voice and data technology firm last year when he ran into a major challenge: How could he quickly fill numerous positions with high-quality professionals as the firm was awarded contracts?

“My wife happens to be an executive recruiter—but I couldn’t afford her,” he says with a laugh. He had tried popular job boards, but was inundated with resumes, mostly from unqualified applicants. That’s when he decided to try one of the business-oriented social networking sites that were taking hold on the Internet.

Weaver had read about LinkedIn.com, the largest of some 30 sites devoted to career networking, in The Wall Street Journal and how some businesses were using the site to fill high-level jobs within a couple of days. Based on the concept that each person is only six degrees of separation from everyone else in the world, social networking sites allow members to build huge networks electronically, tapping into the contacts of their contacts and their contacts’ contacts and so on.

Weaver signed up for the site, but, because he only had a couple of contacts, his initial entry delivered few results. Then a friend in Munich, Germany, who used LinkedIn regularly, invited Weaver to the site as his contact. The invitation—97 percent of LinkedIn members are invited in—and contact with a regular user set things in motion. Soon, Weaver was making targeted searches for the people he needed."
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