Networking is a fantastic way of meeting and interacting with new people in both your personal and professional life. Sometimes is is appropriate to link the two (e.g having your colleagues on your personal profile and at your birthday) and other times it is not (e.g having your friends on your professional profile or at a work-related event).
For me personally I have to take three types of person in to account when I am using social networking sites and networking in general - my friends, my colleagues & my students.
Facebook: I use facebook on a daily basis to communicate with my friends and family and also my colleagues who cross over as my friends. I only have one profile on facebook and that is my personal one. My facebook is set to private & so people have to send me a friend request before that can see any more information that just my name and profile photo. The reason I have done this is 1. because I am quite a private person but mainly because a lot of my students use facebook. When I was at college it was a rule that my teachers could not accept or add us on Facebook - until we had left the institution in which case it was our ex-teachers own decision. I totally agree with this because there are some things that are maybe written by me or written on my profile by my friends that would be inappropriate for my 10 & 11 year old students to see. However the Theatre School I work at does have its own Facebook page which allows me to comment and my students to comment back on so I can interact with them without causing any harm. The only other concern I have with Facebook is that it uses something called 'location services' which basically means that automatically your posts or private messages will be 'stamped' with your location. Should somebody not have their account on private it would mean that anyone in the world would be able to see exactly where you are at any given time of you being active on Facebook. However there is an option for you to 'disable location services' which means that if you are tech-savvy and aware of this then you can feel free to have a non-private account but just turn of your location services.
Twitter: Again I only have one Twitter account which is a personal profile. My Twitter account is also set to private which means that people have to send me what is called a 'follower request' before they can see more than just my name and profile photo. The main reason for this is because, without a private setting, people can follow you and see EVERYTHING you write and send you messages without you even agreeing that it is okay for them to do so. I find without this setting Twitter is far less secure than Facebook as, even without a Facebook profile being set to private you would still have to accept the other persons friend request before they can directly contact you. Obviously I have taken into account that I have students that are likely to use Twitter and so I would have set it to private for this reason if the first reason wasn't there.
Blogger: Okay so I use Blogger only for my University studies and it enables me to communicate and most importantly learn from others on the same course as me without ever meeting them face-to-face. I don't have to worry about security issues with Blogger as there is hardly anything about my personal life on here. It is all educational.
Google+ (1): Firstly I used Google+ only as a means of setting up my Blogger account. I had NEVER heard of Google+ before and it took me a while to get my head around how to use it - especially since it was linked with my Blogger account. Google+ is similar to Facebook and Twitter but it has different options of how much information and interaction you can give people as you can add them to different 'circles' and 'communities'. Firstly, I only used my Google+ account as a means of communicating my University work to others on my course. However.....
Google+ (2): I now use Google+ at work! It has been introduced as a way of making communication across the Partnership more efficient. This has enabled Partners from all different branches and all different strains of the company to communicate ideas & topics to one another. In our branch we have set up different communities for different sections so that each section can see what is going on and what is up and coming. We have many members of staff who only work mornings or only work evenings and so some of them have never met!! And so Google+ gives them a chance to 'meet' and communicate and discuss different 'topics' such as section issues or good news/achievements etc. It is also useful for creating events - our branch's 5 year party is coming up soon and so our 'Google Guide' (one of our managers) has created an event and invited everyone as guests to RSVP either 'Going' or 'Not Going'. We keep calanders, events, news, rotas and all sorts on our Google drive and it has made communication across our company much more effective so far.
Meetings: Last week I attended a meeting with other Partners from other branches across the company to discuss certain topics. I met people who I have never met before who do the exact same job as me but in a different location 1 hour away from me. It was a great opportunity to get their take on things and find out their ways of working which i could take away and learn from. I have already managed to put some of these ideas into practice and so having one simple meeting has enabled me to achieve more in my current role at work!
Parties/Events: Now this is the fun one.. Even at social events it is a great place to meet people and expand your current networks. Wether it be personal or professional. In some cases it is appropriate to mix the two and in others it may not be. However even in a 'social setting' such as a party there can be great business opportunities to be discovered. Sometimes social settings can be more beneficial as people are often more relaxed and free-spirited (and drunk lol) and so conversation flows more freely and there is more opportunity for networking successfully in these circumstances. As long as one is sensible in these circumstances it can often be a great way of starting new business ventures or simply just meeting people you can gain knowledge from and possibly call on to assist you professionally in the future.
To summarise, there are plenty or reasons why networking and social networking can be beneficial but they must be used ethically and in the correct way. As I have mentioned previously, social and professional networking can be linked and can go hand in hand but in the right setting. I think social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc are what one needs to use with care as there are so many ethical considerations to be taken into account.
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