January 2004
The Latest in Networking--Hypernetworking
By
President of Workforce Associates
and author of
NetWork: Maximizing Your Career Resources on the Internet
Available online and in print from Author House
January 2004
The Latest in Networking--Hypernetworking
By
President of Workforce Associates
and author of
NetWork: Maximizing Your Career Resources on the Internet
Available online and in print from Author House
Happy New Year! Hope that 2004 finds you happy and healthy in your personal and professional life. The experts are saying that our recession is slowly grinding to a halt and that hiring will start up soon so gussy yourself up with an optimistic attitude, razor sharp computer and people skills, and every certificate, license, skill upgrade you can determine.
If you feel that you’ve exhausted all the job boards, corporate websites, free agent sites, and professional association websites for job and business opportunities, here’s a new twist to consider --hypernetworking! This is a new term for websites that specialize in building digital webs of people with mutual interests, backgrounds, interests, and job contacts, of course.
I made an informal study of some of these hypernetworking websites. They all take some time to fully harness. Depending on your own situation, each one has its strengths and weaknesses. Having said that, I think that it would be very worthwhile of your time to check them out. Just be sure that you write down what your objective is so that you won’t get too distracted by all the hundreds of kindred spirits out there! For example:
1) Are you looking for someone who is working at XX Company that you’d like to join? You’ll find mini biographies of hundreds of folks who may be helpful in your job search.
2) Are you looking for someone who is a recruiter in YY industry? I find many recruiters who "trawl" these networking sites, looking for folks who are looking for new opportunities in that particular industry.
3) Are you looking for new business opportunities and therefore business partners and new customers? These places are jumping with entrepreneurs of all stripes, looking for effective and cheap ways of letting others know about their goods and services.
Here is a list of hypernetworking sites to investigate:
Spoke is a leading developer of professional relationship applications that enable professionals to leverage existing relationships, drive top line revenue, and optimize the sales process. Spoke Software improves sales productivity and complements conventional CRM and SFA solutions, leveraging their impact both privately and securely. Spoke currently works with a number of pilot customers - including industry leaders and Fortune 1000 companies in manufacturing, high tech, financial and professional services sectors - to improve their sales and deal execution.
The National Science Foundation had awarded a grant to Spoke for work to improve the quality of information within a relationship network. Spoke's products and applications provide insight, influence and access through relationships for customers in industrial manufacturing, capital goods, and professional and financial services firms.
The technology upon which Spoke has built its applications stems in large part from over 40 years of academic research. The academic community has played a substantial role in helping guide Spoke's technology development, and it will continue to benefit from the aggregate findings gained from usage of Spoke in ongoing research.
"What is especially impressive about Spoke is the way in which they are able to integrate cutting-edge social research with state-of-the-art software applications to yield products of tremendous business value," remarked Joel Polodny, professor of Sociology and Business, Harvard University.
Tribe.net is an informal networking website that is multi-purpose, meaning that you can look for jobs, post a job, buy and sell real estate, locate old friends, college roommates, etc. It’s still in Beta mode so there isn’t a lot of depth to what you’ll find but my guess is that it will grow pretty fast now that you know about it — and use it.
Social-networking ventures focused on business, such as Ryze, let users create networks of co-workers. Users create profiles that list past and current jobs. They can then search for others with similar backgrounds. For example, a saleswoman at a big tech manufacturer might discover that a co-worker two floors down is married to the brother of the information-technology chief at a potential customer. The saleswoman could ask her co-worker for an introduction – leading to a possible sale.
Ryze was launched in 2001 by Adrian Scott, an early investor in file-sharing site Napster. Ryze users create individual personality profiles for free on the company's site. It makes money by charging $9.95 a month for advanced searches. I used Ryze to find out re connections to major businesses in Indianapolis. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there are tens of folks with connections to Eli Lilly, Guidant, and Roche as well as many small companies in Central Indiana. Check out the "Job Hunting Game" network group where you’ll find fellow job hunters and recruiters who are looking for top talent in your field and in your backyard.
Members are reporting all kinds of business done with LinkedIn. Endorsements from folks around the country indicate that LinkedIn has helped them to reach hiring managers whom they wouldn’t have known about through more traditional means of networking. Others, like headhunters and recruiters, like the anonymity of LinkedIn to check out candidates for new positions. They can establish an email relationship for a period of time to test the candidates’ communication skills and then work with them to find a better career opportunity, if possible.
Free Agents are finding that LinkedIn and other hypernetworking sites are excellent ways of finding leads and employers who are looking for their expertise and experience.
So make part of your agenda each job searching day to check out these new and unusual sites that may pave the way for a new job or career opportunity that you might never expect from the more traditional websites and physical networking. Let me know what your success is from these sites. As I mentioned earlier, they’re all in their infancy at present but hold a great deal of promise. Would love to know what your personal experience — good or bad — is with each one of them!
Sincerely,
Jane M. Lommel, Ph.D.
jlommel@WorkforceAssociates.com
Copyright © 1995-2007 Gary Johnson Communications. All rights reserved. BraveNewWorkWorld, NewWork, NewWork News, Careers in the NewWork World, WITNE, and WITNE: Women in the New Economy are trademarks of Gary Johnson Communications.