Social networking and business

Effective business oriented social networking has to be good social networking per se as a fundamental requirement. I outline my working definition of what constitutes effective social networking in several of my earlier postings in this series but repeat them here as a set of well tested, experientially validated rules as they apply as underlying principles to all of these postings and to all of the postings in my blog in general.

Platt’s Laws of Good Social Networking:

1. Networking is a proactive participatory sport. You are not networking until you start taking the initiative and until you follow through.
2. Real networking does not begin with the initial point of contact. It begins with the second, as that is when a real conversation begins.
3. Good networking is not about asking for things. It is about building relationships and developing trust, and that works best when you start out with an open, giving attitude. So good networking begins with paying it forward. As a corollary to this, if you offer value you will in general get value back in return.

Platt’s Principles of Good Social Networking:

1. Effective social networking generally requires an accurate knowledge of who you are networking with and how they are contributing to that networking.
2. Effective social networking generally involves sharing and even collectively pooling bodies of information and knowledge from across the networking group that adds value for all participants.
3. Social networking is not about who you know. It is about who your direct contacts know and who they know, and who they in turn know, in an expanding but reachable circle of potential direct connections.
4. Effective social networking is a process of effectively reaching outside of the familiar, in identifying and connecting to possible networking leads, and in helping those you would want to have find you to do so.

Jumpstart your networking:

1. Jumpstart your networking – building a networking foundation.
2. Jumpstart your networking – connecting towards a next job with focused networking.
3. Jumpstart your networking – managing your job search network.
4. Jumpstart your networking – tracking the effectiveness of your efforts and focusing on the more productive.

Using social networking and the interactive web to more effectively reach out and do business:

1. Feedback from LinkedIn – what is your top priority question you would seek to share ideas on? .
2. What social networking is – some thoughts re. top business questions shared through LinkedIn.
3. Social networking – some further thoughts re top shared LinkedIn questions.
4. Social networking – the what and where of business social network marketing.
5. Social networking – content is our most important product.
6. Social network taxonomy and social networking strategy.
7. Social networking – spam and identity theft concerns and networking strategy.
8. Taking the first steps: “the most important reasons to add social networking to my business and an easy way to do this” .
9. Knowing your market and from their perspective.
10. Taking the first steps: content is everything.
11. A quick note on effectively using a social networking profile.
12. Cross-channel Marketing and Business Social Networking.
13. Business social networking – reconsidering an old question.
14. Wikis as a key to sharing knowledge and to networking within the organization.
15. Social networking search and business intelligence – a strategic approach to finding and for being found.
16. Social networking – a validation of basic principle.
17. Social networking and online marketing – and life as the boundaries blur.
18. Social networking in multiple messages to multiple audiences.
19. Social networking and viral marketing.
20. Leveraging social networking with search engine optimization and marketing.
21. Social networking and business holiday parties – the pros and cons of mixing business with pleasure.
22. Networking strategy, conflicts of interest and safe harbors.
23. Social networks and the validity of the online presence.
24. Botnets and social networking, and the two sides of automated systems.
25. Purpose driven social networking – connecting in support of a mission.
26. Social networking and keeping life in balance.
27. Social networking and the joy of diversity and celebration.
28. Social networking and staying connected – identifying and avoiding single points of failure.
29. Social networking and bringing an online presence back into effective focus when you are faced with problem content.
30. A belated Happy New Years and a thought regarding great social networking and how to do it.
31. Social networking, the interactive web and challenges to widening inclusion.
32. References and recommendations.
33. Social networks and the flow of shared information – a noisy channel model.
34. Social networking as an ethical imperative.
35. Creating societal as well as personal value through social networking.
36. The perils of top-down versus bottom-up.
37. Communications and coordination of shared effort.
38. Social networking and community, and the emergence of fads.
39. Social networking bridges and enablers.
40. Ubiquitous computing and communications and the implications of always on.
41. Ubiquitous computing and communications and the changing face of the news.
42. Online social networking and its impact on social discourse and democratic processes.
43. 360 degree interviews – the hiring manager and HR perspective.
44. Crowd sourcing, open innovation and open organization – 1: what it is with examples.
45. Crowd sourcing, open innovation and open organization – 2: how it helps you to connect to the marketplace.
46. Crowd sourcing, open innovation and open organization – 3: and viral marketing.
47. The myth of usability – and the impact of crowd sourcing as needs complexity expands.
48. Crowd sourcing and the opening up of open innovation.
49. Social networking as an essential driver for effective green technology.
50. Implementing a social networking strategy to drive effective green technology and sustainability – a practical guide – building a working foundation 1.
51. Implementing a social networking strategy to drive effective green technology and sustainability – a practical guide, part 2 – building a working foundation 2.
52. Implementing a social networking strategy to drive effective green technology and sustainability – a practical guide, part 3 – organizing for stability and scalability.
53. Implementing a social networking strategy to drive effective green technology and sustainability – a practical guide, part 4 – marketing.
54. Implementing a social networking strategy to drive effective green technology and sustainability – a practical guide, part 5 – fundraising 1.
55. Implementing a social networking strategy to drive effective green technology and sustainability – a practical guide, part 6 – fundraising 2.
56. Implementing a social networking strategy to drive effective green technology and sustainability – a practical guide, part 7 – strategy and leadership in an open and less hierarchical organization.
57. Implementing a social networking strategy to drive effective green technology and sustainability – a practical guide, part 8 – leadership as it faces outward in finding common ground and developing working coalitions.
58. Implementing a social networking strategy to drive effective green technology and sustainability – a practical guide, part 9 – meeting the challenge.
59. Online social networking and community when machines think – an emerging reality (with this and subsequent postings in this series added to Ubiquitous Computing and Communications – everywhere all the time starting with posting 42).
60. Green, sustainability and the challenge of BP – part 10 to the practical guide for Green and sustainability.
61. Facebook and the importance of respecting social contracts.
62. Facebook’s opt-out personal information sharing and its impact on online reputation and confidentiality – a proposed fix to the technology side of this problem.
63. Privacy and confidentiality in an increasingly real-time, all the time online world – a reply to a feedback comment to 5-16-2010 posting.
64. The myth of the technically sweet solution – the need to identify and address problems in context.
65. Green and sustainability from optimizing the product and process lifecycle – part 11 to the practical guide for Green and sustainability.
66. Robin Dunbar and the limits to social networking – a fundamental question of purpose and definition.
67. Reciprocal links, value chains and strategic development in a business ecology, and creating value through business social networking – part 1 of a 2 part series on developing a foundation for creating monetizable value from business social networking.
68. Creating value through business social networking in a business to consumer context – part 2 of a 2 part series on developing a foundation for creating monetizable value from business social networking.
69. Niche market to mainstream – leveraging user interfaces for the visually impaired to handheld devices.
70. Communicating Green and sustainability beyond your immediate goals oriented community.
71. Online store, online market space – part 12: the Green and environmentally conscious business. See also Startups and Early Stage Businesses for other postings in my online store best practices series.
72. When effectively managing an online group means not holding on too tightly.
73. Business networking in a time of business challenge.
74. Building a business from a Green foundation – avoiding the Green gimmick trap: part 1 of a series on the Green business infrastructure.
75. Business networking in a time of blue ocean marketplace opportunity.
76. Business social networking to meet human needs: Part 1 – a need for shared best practices.
77. Building a business from a Green foundation – cultivating the Green aware employee: part 2 of a series on the Green business infrastructure.
78. Business social networking to meet human needs: Part 2 – local online and the pressure for customer-aware best practices.
79. Building a business from a Green foundation – building from a Green strategy imperative: part 3 of a series on the Green business infrastructure.
80. Business social networking to meet human needs: Part 3: spam is in the eye of the beholder.
81. Building a business from a Green foundation – building for Green products and services: part 4 of a series on the Green business infrastructure.
82. Building a business from a Green foundation – Green and sustainable context and the Green marketplace: part 5 of a series on the Green business infrastructure.
83. Business social networking to meet human needs: Part 4: change as the only constant.
84. Building a business from a Green foundation – Green and sustainable innovation as a driving imperative: part 6 of a series on the Green business infrastructure.
85. Green and sustainable in a political context – Part 1: standards, and popular and legal definitions.
86. Green and sustainable in a political context – Part 2: building a vocabulary of meaning and not just buzz.
87. Green and sustainable in a political context – Part 3: the political process.
88. Green and sustainable in a political context – Part 4: crowd sourcing, viral marketing and sharing ownership.
89. Green and sustainable in a political context – Part 5: defining and maintaining a stable core identity while effectively connecting out.
90. Social media and finding a balance in the face of conflict.
91. Social media and the boundaries of propriety.
92. Green and sustainable in a political context – Part 6: defining and maintaining a stable sense of Green and sustainable as a core principle.
93. Businesses and social media – where everyone publically reviews you.
94. Green and sustainable in a political context – Part 7: arguing the case for long term benefits.
95. In consideration of due diligence when utilizing third party IT service providers.
96. Trolls and other antisocial, disruptive and divisive social networkers – Part 1.
97. Trolls and other antisocial, disruptive and divisive social networkers – Part 2.
98. Cyber-bullies, cyber-stalkers, trolls and the individual social networker.
99. Social networking with a professional face.
100. Selling the nonprofit mission and vision – making an effective interpersonal connection.
101. Creating value for a business through Facebook friending and social media participation.
102. Social networking and maintaining a professional image – a brief guide.
103. Friends, friendship and Facebook friends – navigating the maze of relationships.
104. Making your business social networking work for you.
105. Wikipedia, wikis and social media marketing – 1.
106. Social networking with a professional face – 1: starting a new series.
107. Wikipedia, wikis and social media marketing – 2.
108. Social networking with a professional face – 2: access and visibility issues in social profiles on Facebook.
109. Social networking with a professional face – 3 making LinkedIn work for you.
110. Wikipedia, wikis and social media marketing – 3.
111. Developing and enforcing password best practices.
112. Social networking with a professional face – 4 creating strategically effective social networking profile content.
113. Wikipedia, wikis and social media marketing – 4.
114. Wikipedia, wikis and social media marketing – 5.
115. Social networking with a professional face – 5 creating strategically effective social networking profile content, part 2.
116. Wikipedia, wikis and social media marketing – 6.
117. Social networking with a professional face – 6 creating strategically effective social networking profile content, part 3.
118. Social networking with a professional face – 7 cross-channel marketing in social media and networking.
119. Wikipedia, wikis and social media marketing – 7.
120. Enabling your customers, enabling your business – building interactive, participatory value.
121. Turning business communications inside-out, outside-in to create sustaining value – 1.
122. Turning business communications inside-out, outside-in to create sustaining value – 2.
123. Turning business communications inside-out, outside-in to create sustaining value – 3.
124. Expanding your social media reach and vision as a means to more effective social activism.
125. Developing a social media business strategy – 1.
126. Developing a social media business strategy – 2.
127. Developing a social media business strategy – 3.
128. Social networking and maintaining a professional image – an update.
129. Social networking and creating an ethical framework.
130. The decline of MySpace as a cautionary tale for Facebook.
131. Bringing total customer experience into your business’ core competency.
132. Negotiating for overall goals and not details.
133. Social networking, community and the pace and shaping of innovation – 1.
134. Social networking, community and the pace and shaping of innovation – 2.
135. Designing social media and other information-rich tools for transactional memory.
136. Social networking community and the pace and shaping of innovation – 3.
137. Social networking community and the pace and shaping of innovation – 4.
138. Social networking community and the pace and shaping of innovation – 5.
139. Getting to know you, getting to know all about you – and the changing nature of meeting others.
140. Social networking community and the pace and shaping of innovation – 6.
141. Social networking community and the pace and shaping of innovation – 7.
142. Monetizing social networks and the valuation of social media connectivity – 1: a diversity of participant-side visions.
143. Monetizing social networks and the valuation of social media connectivity – 2: a diversity of provider-side visions.
144. Monetizing social networks and the valuation of social media connectivity – 3: connecting valuation approaches.
145. Monetizing social networks and the valuation of social media connectivity – 4: influence scores 1.
146. Monetizing social networks and the valuation of social media connectivity – 5: influence scores 2.
147. Monetizing social networks and the valuation of social media connectivity – 6: social networking and connection strategies and the focus of influence.
148. Monetizing social networks and the valuation of social media connectivity – 7: objectivity and influencing from a genuine voice.
149. Monetizing social networks and the valuation of social media connectivity – 8: social media diversity and where a high influence score represents influence.
150. Monetizing social networks and the valuation of social media connectivity – 9: who speaks for whom?.
151. Monetizing social networks and the valuation of social media connectivity – 10: putting the puzzle pieces together.
152. Marketing meet-ups and making business oriented social gatherings cost-effective and productive.
153. Understanding the crowd and how it can be misused as a source of insight – 1: in search engines and their underlying algorithms.
154. Understanding the crowd and how it can be misused as a source of insight – 2: crowd sourcing and business intelligence.
155. Insiders, outsiders and hype in social media.
156. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 15: developing and scaling up a business past a Dunbar’s limit headcount. You can find Parts 1-14 of this series at Startups and Early Stage Businesses, starting with its posting 96.
157. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 16: Dunbar’s limit and operational systems scalability.
158. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 17: business scalability, business model scalability and evolution.
159. Career changes, career transitions 10: business-oriented social networking as a career development tool set. See Guide to Effective Job Search and Career Development – 2, postings 285 and following for the rest of this series.
160. Information systems security and the ongoing consequences of always being reactive – 7: moving towards proactive controls 5. See Ubiquitous Computing and Communications – everywhere all the time, postings 185 and following for other postings in this series.
161. Information systems security and the ongoing consequences of always being reactive – 8: moving towards proactive controls 6.
162. Information systems security and the ongoing consequences of always being reactive – 9: developing a more proactive layered defense approach.
163. Information systems security and the ongoing consequences of always being reactive – 10: publically sharing vulnerability information between businesses and communities.
164. Information systems security and the ongoing consequences of always being reactive – 11: governments as white and black hat hackers, and the threat and reality of cyber-warfare.
165. Information systems security and the ongoing consequences of always being reactive – 12: defensive and offensive systems and the large grey area in between.
166. Information systems security and the ongoing consequences of always being reactive – 13: putting the puzzle together as a strategic and operational process 1.
167. Information systems security and the ongoing consequences of always being reactive – 14: putting the puzzle together as a strategic and operational process 2.
168. Information systems security and the ongoing consequences of always being reactive – 15: putting the puzzle together as a strategic and operational process 3.
169. Information systems security and the ongoing consequences of always being reactive – 16: the internet of things and the emergence of next generation DDoS attacks.
170. Information systems security and the ongoing consequences of always being reactive – 17: incentivizing more secure software and information systems.
171. Some thought concerning a rapidly emerging internet of things 1: starting a new series.
172. Some thought concerning a rapidly emerging internet of things 2: barcodes, RFID’s and the passive network.
173. Some thought concerning a rapidly emerging internet of things 3: the active and interactively connected network.
174. Some thought concerning a rapidly emerging internet of things 4: the active and interactively connected home of the future, and the home SCADA network.
175. Some thought concerning a rapidly emerging internet of things 5: the active and interactively connected complex and mission-critical SCADA network.
176. Some thought concerning a rapidly emerging internet of things 6: identifying and harnessing the power of ad hoc systems 1.
177. Some thought concerning a rapidly emerging internet of things 7: identifying and harnessing the power of ad hoc systems 2.
178. If you want your company to be more innovative 1: improve the cafeteria.
179. Leadership as a process of pattern recognition.
180. Some thought concerning a rapidly emerging internet of things 8: fully automated systems and the implications of effective removal of direct human oversight 1.
181. If you want your company to be more innovative 2: build a creative commons area for a single business location.
182. Some thought concerning a rapidly emerging internet of things 9: fully automated systems and the implications of effective removal of direct human oversight 2.
183. If you want your company to be more innovative 3: connecting a geographically dispersed workforce and adding in online commons areas to accompany an office-sited commons.
184. Some thought concerning a rapidly emerging internet of things 10: fully automated systems and the implications of effective removal of direct human oversight 3.
185. If you want your company to be more innovative 4: accommodating and thriving on cultural diversity.
186. Some thought concerning a rapidly emerging internet of things 11: networks of things, networks of people, and blurring boundaries.
187. If you want your company to be more innovative 5: thinking and executing in terms of the triple bottom line.
188. Adaptive leadership and thriving in the face of change 1: starting a new series.
189. If you want your company to be more innovative 6: communication and innovation openness in the face of due diligence barriers 1.
190. Adaptive leadership and thriving in the face of change 2: leading flexibly from a stable center.
191. If you want your company to be more innovative 7: communication and innovation openness in the face of due diligence barriers 2.
192. Adaptive leadership and thriving in the face of change 3: creating and sustaining stability and confidence in the face of change and uncertainty.
193. If you want your company to be more innovative 8: communication and innovation openness in the face of due diligence barriers 3.
194. Adaptive leadership and thriving in the face of change 4: stability and adaptability in a business social context 1. For other installments to this series see Business Strategy and Operations – 3.
195. If you want your company to be more innovative 9: communication and innovation openness in the face of due diligence barriers 4.
196. Adaptive leadership and thriving in the face of change 5: stability and adaptability in a business social context 2.

This guide is continued, starting with regular directory posting 197, at Social Networking and Business 2.