Entrepreneurs Need Social Networking

When searching in internet about the future of social networks I came across many interesting articles dealing with both professional and non-professional social networks. In my research I concentrated on the business-related ones.

The first article (which is an interview), published by MSN Business, deals with the importance of SN for entrepreneurs and therefore closely relates to the topic of our debate. Dan Schawbel, a leading personal branding expert for Gen-Y, explains the advantages of SN for entrepreneurs mentioning e.g. the word-of-mouth propaganda (“people want to join groups; they want to meet people and buy products or services based on their friends’ recommendations”) or the opportunity to “effectively target specific age, income and geographic groups” by using the information available from SN. The outcome of this article is clear: the future of business lies in SN and only those who accept this fact and actively work on it can take advantage of it.
(To read the whole article please click on http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27438286/ )


Next two articles, both of which published by the Financial Times, discuss the pros and cons of online networking.

Adam Jones, author of both of these articles states the advantages of online networks (ON) as follows: ON can “unearth new business opportunities, particularly for the self-employed” and therefore appropriately complement the face-to-face networking. They also represent new tools for recruitment by matching the “stream of vacant positions” with the “stream of active job seekers” as well as “people who … are not looking for a job but might be open to offers”. Jones also stresses the importance of weak-ties when seeking a job. These statements clearly indicate the crucial importance of ON for business of the future, since excellent employees (who can be recruited via ON) create the competitive advantages of each business. On the other hand, the privacy and professional confidentiality issues nowadays represent the main pitfalls of using ON for recruiting new employees.
(To read the articles please click on
1. http://blogs.ft.com/management/2008/04/15/pros-and-cons-of-online-networking-the-verdict/
2. http://blogs.ft.com/management/2008/04/08/whats-the-point-of-online-networking/ )


Finally, in order to support our arguments for the debate by an expert’s opinion, I tried to find out the investors’ and analysts’ predictions about the future of SN. I found the following answers to my queries, all of them published by CNET:

The opinions of investors are disunited, since they “do not want to miss out on the ‘next Google or Yahoo’ but are cautious of being overconfident about a Web phenomenon that is not proven over the long term.”

Also some analysts cautiously state that despite the recent massive proliferation of online SN “…the hothouse atmosphere of easy capital … will not be sustained indefinitely” and “…there is also little evidence that social networking will be as beneficial for businesses as other Web-based communications technology, such as instant messaging.” On the other hand, others point out that the current growth in SN offers opportunities for businesses to get involved in supporting the infrastructure needed to run such sites and that some industries (e.g. the communication industry) will be heavily dependent on SN in the future.

Having read all the articles I haven ´t found any “clear answer” predicting with 100% certainty the future development and importance of social networks; this will make our debate an interesting and fair duel (with opponents standing at the same starting line) where better arguments win.


(To read the last mentioned articles please click on
1. http://news.cnet.com/Analyst-Social-networking-faces-uncertain-future/2100-1025_3-6214355.html
2. http://news.cnet.com/Companies-warned-not-to-rush-into-social-networking/2100-1032_3-6223009.html?tag=nw.1
3. http://news.cnet.com/RIM-BlackBerrys-future-lies-in-social-networking/2100-1039_3-6230542.html?tag=nw.3 )