Thing 6: On-line networks

On-line networks are great! They are a great way to connect and share ideas - although I am slightly disappointed that thing 6 did not include email discussion lists. I joined the Jisc mail email lists over ten years ago and I am still a member and I find them very useful and helpful when I need help. But I know that I am moving away from the topic.

I will admit that I two see on-line networks as having different roles in my life - Facebook is for friends and family so that I can see what is happening in their lives and share what I am doing while networks such as Linkedin is for work and professional information. Twitter is one which I used for both - although I do try and keep my postings professional. So I am not going to comment about Facebook in this post.

Last year I attended the New Professionals Conference, in which Suzanne Wheatley from Sue Hill ran a workshop about the importance of managing your on-line presence. One of key messages which I took for this session was the following:

1. Keep it updated
2. Put a recent photo on your profile - but you not your children or dogs
3. Ensure that it is professional
4. More and more job hunters and employers are looking at your profile so ensure that it says the right thing about you.

I will be honest after the conference, I did go and check out my Linkedin profile and added a more recent photo and updated my details. Although - hand over heart I do not do this on a regular basis. I may go and have a quick look after posting this.

What I get out of them

This is an interesting question - I suppose my LinkedIn profile is useful for job hunting, and connecting with my colleagues. I do try and keep the account for work purposes only rather than for friends. Now that I think about it I really so not use the LinkedIn account for anything other than this. The groups which I belong to are interesting but I have not really commented or joined in the conversations - I suppose I am a little bit nervous and scared. I do find it really useful to have the information sent to my email address, as it means that I do not have to keep login to see what is happening.

There's a time and place

More and more employers are creating policy and guidance around the use of social networking sites and it is useful to go and find out if you have one and more importantly read it! If you are unsure over anything you can always ask. Why do I mention this, I was also talking to another librarian recently and they were saying that some employees were on Facebook during work hours and their status read:

"enquiry desk - so boring"
"have a presentation for tomorrow, have not done anything - just going to muddle through".

If your boss or colleagues look at this status then what is it saying about you and your professionalism. I know that I do not access Facebook or twitter at work, because that is not what my employer pays me to do. If I was updating a library Facebook page then this maybe different, but as we do not have one, I can't really access Facebook on my work computer.

Networking

I am a huge fan of networking, and the more you can do it the more contacts you have the more experience which you can draw upon is always good. Online networks can help you keep up that interaction and share ideas and thoughts and it can be done in one place. Managing all of these sites and profiles can be difficult I have tried netvibes and hootsuite - but the last one I just can't get to work. I may try again using Chrome browser and see if this makes a difference.

Other sites

I have not really looked at Pininterest and Google+, as I feel that I want to get on top of the networks which I already belong to and get the most out of them before moving on to the next one. Pininterest looks good - for hobbies, I am a BIG crafter and I would proberly use this site for this rather than work.