To expand my networking, I finally started using my LinkedIn account, looking up anyone and everyone I could think of. It really made me take an inventory of how few people I really know (compared to what most people would think) but then again, a lot of them simply aren’t online as much or just don’t have an account.
I have accounts on and explored some other sites, but apart from LinkedIn and Facebook, along with a listing on Manta, I’m not using any of them unless someone contacts me through them (I use my real name for all of them). I just set up one on www.Spoke.com, but their server is running so slow I couldn’t even finish my profile. I also set up an account on www.Friendster.com, where I found my cousin, but didn’t do a lot of searching to see who else is on it.
But if you are on LinkedIn and want to be part of my network, you can find me at http://www.linkedin.com/in/kentropolis, and if you’re not, we can connect by either signing up and adding me or sending me your email address so I can send a request to you. It will give you the chance to see who I know and who they know, as well as share your own social capital.
When I had 13 people in my LinkedIn network, that amounted to 151 second degree contacts and over 10,000 third degree contacts I could be introduced to through the system. When I added the 14th, that one person’s contacts alone shot the numbers up. My extended network even includes BNIÂ founder Dr. Ivan Misner. On an amusing note, Vice President Dick Cheney is on the system, but has no friends. Al Gore is nowhere to be found, so he’s probably too busy inventing a new Internet with a smaller carbon footprint.