The rise in networking sites in the UK for business purposes has given us the ability to network fellow professionals and proactively make valuable business connections. However, with an endless stream of new sites coming up weekly how do we know which ones will be most useful for our needs? Some are useful for attending events and some for plain networking, an extension of our outlook address books.
Here are just some of the sites you can review: linkedin, xing, word of mouse, plaxo, naymz, blue chip expert, fastpitch, ecademy…. You see this list seems to grow weekly.
Well how do you know which one is best??
It’s difficult that’s for sure, and to find the time to research and use each one is just not possible.
Firstly and foremost, you need to define what you require and what you want to get out of using a networking site. Each one has its own nuances and benefits. In my opinion, two you should join would be linkedin and ecademy; you could say these were the mainstream sites (akin to monster) in the job board world.
These two sites differ; linkedin is really more focused on your personal profile within a company etc, ecademy really more focused on promoting your own business if you are a sole trader/company owner looking for new clients. Both in turn create good exposure.
As for all the other sites I will evaluate these further in my next article, but as a teaser they are much more niche but also can serve a purpose.
Positive
- A good robust site, intuitive design aimed at the mainstream market
- Great for promoting your background and experience whilst not appearing to be looking for a job
- Good features including in-mails whereby you can directly contact people
- Good for pro-active job seekers
- Getting in contact with recruiters in your field
- The ability to use or remove as many features as you want
- Good for networking in the UK with a wide user base of professionals at all levels
- Access to direct company adverts on the site
- New feature on company profiles allows you to view a company’s history and key execs
Negative
- Overused by recruiters
- Often people have their private email attached to alerts, meaning contacting new people can take weeks/months
- The Q
edwin abl is a director of consegna uk which is a specialist recruitment agency which sources candidates through referrals and social networking for the management consultancy and technology sectors.