On 31 March 2008, Hawaiian Telcom’s Cliff Miyake published an article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on how to find business contacts in Google. It’s not that hard to do, especially with the growing acceptance of social networking by professionals.
LinkedIn is another good way to track down contacts. The free service is limited, but most users find that it’s enough to get the job done. I like LinkedIn because its user interface is much cleaner that other social networking sites. No music or video players, no flashy graphics - LinkedIn seems like a better way to make a good impression on professionals.
Have you revealed too much?
As I’ve mentioned before, some people and companies need to address security concerns. Many social networking sites want users to reveal their lives in detail, to create compelling profiles and additional links among users.
But what if a user inadvertently reveals their password on their profile? it can happen. I’ve met people who use their children’s names and birthdays as passwords. Place of birth is a common security question that banks and financial services companies ask as part of a multiple authentication scheme. Social networks also ask for that information - as part of user profiles.
Related posts on billso.com
- 4 April 2008: Get LinkedIn with billso.com
- 14 March 2008: Social media in action
- 3 January 2008: Impression management and Facebook
- 10 August 2007: Forty-somethings flock to Facebook
- 2 July 2007: CXOs face malware email attacks
- 20 June 2007: Facebook vs MySpace
- 11 January 2007: How to create a secure password
