Actually, it's time to be more serious about social networking

I read Dan's post (below, hopefully, but here's a link just in case this post has wandered off on its own) and thought I'd take issue. Sorry, Dan. Actually, I'm not disagreeing with Dan - after all, he is right on the money. I'm not too sure I want the IWR readers and contributors group on Facebook to know exactly how many chocolate chip muffins I ate this afternoon - that's something for my friends to know,  although possibly not the colleagues over the desk from me who wondered where the last one went.

But I also think that the line between work and social life is blurred, especially in more recent times. I talk about personal things with my workmates and contacts, and knowing about each other as people always helps to smooth things along. However, the sorts of information people share on Facebook - as Dan has pointed out - are increasingly becoming more intimate.

Yet, my first reaction to reading the post below was: isn't Facebook for professionals actually called LinkedIn? I know it doesn't get much love, and I'm one of thousands who has rather neglected their profile on that site, but frankly, it's there for friends and business contacts that I want to stay in contact with professionally. Facebook is something you share with an inner business circle, because you want to find out how everyone did at Glastonbury, or see the latest pictures of an old workmates' kids.

Then again, there is a reason why LinkedIn isn't necessarily the Facebook Pro of which we seek.

Put simply, these things don't develop in parallel as much as we'd like to believe they do. LinkedIn overlapped with Orkut, which overlapped Friendster, which overlapped with Faceparty, which overlapped with MySpace, which overlapped with Facebook.

Facebook will be replaced in the affections of social networkers some time soon by a newer, shinier toy, something with more bells and whistles, perhaps, or something a little more elegant. Or possibly something that makes the distinction between friends you share everything with, and business acquaintances you'd like to share certain things with. I don't know. LinkedIn survived as a popular cause for a few years, and it'll probably stumble on for a few more, but I'm betting there will be a thinning out of other, weaker, members of the social networking circle some time soon.

I also know one other thing - it's not linear. Orkut still has a huge following in Brazil, for example. LinkedIn is still visited. Will the last person in at Plaxo.com please turn out the lights? Which brings us to another point I've only just stumbled across. I can't remember the last time I visited Plaxo, and yet it has a couple of hundred business contacts of mine on file. I need to wipe them right away.

I read Dan's post (below, hopefully, but here's a link just in case this post has wandered off on its own) and thought I'd take issue. Sorry, Dan. Actually, I'm not disagreeing with Dan - after all, he is right on the money. I'm not too sure I want the IWR readers and contributors group on Facebook to know exactly how many chocolate chip muffins I ate this afternoon - that's something for my friends to know,  although possibly not the colleagues over the desk from me who wondered where the last one went.

But I also think that the line between work and social life is blurred, especially in more recent times. I talk about personal things with my workmates and contacts, and knowing about each other as people always helps to smooth things along. However, the sorts of information people share on Facebook - as Dan has pointed out - are increasingly becoming more intimate.

Yet, my first reaction to reading the post below was: isn't Facebook for professionals actually called LinkedIn? I know it doesn't get much love, and I'm one of thousands who has rather neglected their profile on that site, but frankly, it's there for friends and business contacts that I want to stay in contact with professionally. Facebook is something you share with an inner business circle, because you want to find out how everyone did at Glastonbury, or see the latest pictures of an old workmates' kids.

Then again, there is a reason why LinkedIn isn't necessarily the Facebook Pro of which we seek.

Put simply, these things don't develop in parallel as much as we'd like to believe they do. LinkedIn overlapped with Orkut, which overlapped Friendster, which overlapped with Faceparty, which overlapped with MySpace, which overlapped with Facebook.

Facebook will be replaced in the affections of social networkers some time soon by a newer, shinier toy, something with more bells and whistles, perhaps, or something a little more elegant. Or possibly something that makes the distinction between friends you share everything with, and business acquaintances you'd like to share certain things with. I don't know. LinkedIn survived as a popular cause for a few years, and it'll probably stumble on for a few more, but I'm betting there will be a thinning out of other, weaker, members of the social networking circle some time soon.

I also know one other thing - it's not linear. Orkut still has a huge following in Brazil, for example. LinkedIn is still visited. Will the last person in at Plaxo.com please turn out the lights? Which brings us to another point I've only just stumbled across. I can't remember the last time I visited Plaxo, and yet it has a couple of hundred business contacts of mine on file. I need to wipe them right away.