I’ve been ‘LinkedIn’ for several months now. I’ve made contacts with enough of my current and past colleagues to feel like its useful. I’ve also gotten several serious employment inquiries. I am a firm believer in the whole ‘web networking’ thing. When you replace the ‘web’ with ‘social’ in that statement is where I get a little sketchy – at least when talking about professional relationships.
There are blog posts out the wazoo talking about FaceBook burying sites like myspace and LinkedIn. I am certainly not bashing FaceBook because I’m not much of a user – it seems like it has a nicely designed web interface and certainly is getting a lot of pub so they must be doing something right. I just don’t get the hype from the perspective of saying it will ‘replace’ sites like LinkedIn. When I created my FaceBook account and started trying to connect to contacts I felt like I was in a dating service. Maybe its more of a general issue with society, but the pictures of people are almost always in a party mode and most of the people seem to me to be in more of a ‘social mood’ in their profiles and comments. Maybe I’m just turning into an old guy, but it just seems like the purpose is different, whether the creators intended it to be different or not. Maybe the new wave is to totally mashup your personal and professional life. I’m not sure I’m down with that though… that’ll take some getting used to.
So, again I’m not saying use LinkedIn over Facebook. I’m looking for someone to convince me that I should invest the time into FaceBook for professional endeavors. So… let me have it.
mikewitters.com 
I had a setting screwed up on my new server so emails weren’t getting sent to new users to the website. I removed the need for you to be a ‘member’ of the site, but I will still moderate the comments.
First off, I agree completely about facebook vs linked in. Look me up on both. You should find both are set to professional purposes. I get more “kids” from high schools wanting me to be their friend on facebook. I also have a myspace page and I am very choosing how I let be a friend.
With that said, how did I stumble across your blog? Linked In. Why? Looking for a great WebSphere Portal Lead Architect.
If this is something you would like to discuss, let me know when you might a few minutes to do so.
BTW, the position is permanent with PSC. No relocation is required, just the ability to great within the great 48 when needed.
This is not a staff aug or contract to hire at our clients either. True consulting on a perm basis.
Hope to hear from you either way and great blog!
Melissa Mansker
913-234-8172