Facebook and LinkedIn

Ah, Facebook. The great time-waster, I mean, social networker of our age. I enjoy using Facebook. In addition to the game apps that I use to provide myself with some distraction throughout the day, I am using Facebook to connect with friends, both old and new. I have noticed that there are more and more of my old high school mates getting onto Facebook. I think much of this has come as a result of our recent 20th anniversary reunion. I have noticed too that my parents and many from their generation and older have been flocking onto Facebook of late. An interesting phenomena to say the least. I think that one reason people are drawn to use Facebook is that it is easy to use and has some privacy features built in to provide some sense of security. Plus, as more people join, it is having a snowball effect. The more that are members, the greater the reason for others to want to connect to it.

I am a member of 52 groups currently. These groups are both for professional and personal interests. These groups provide me the opportunity to both show support for various libraries or causes, as well as stay informed about them. The groups are also a way to connect with others of similar interests. I am also a fan of a number of groups, persons, and things. The fan pages are another way to stay connected and informed.

I also use Facebook for work-related purposes also. I have a Fan page up for the Grewcock Library here at Grace University. It provides me with another means for communicating about and promoting the library. I also use the messaging feature in Facebook to communicate with student workers. This has recently been of great help since we have been having some email server problems here at the school. I chose to use a fan page rather than a group in order to provide a bit more formal of a arrangement for the library's presence on Facebook as well as to be able to gather statistics for its usage.

I use LinkedIn primarily to connect with friends and colleagues. I have not yet used this tool to its full potential. I have seen it used as a way to get word out about job openings. The groups I am a member of on LinkedIn are larger groups and seem to be generally less active. I have made recommendations for people I have worked with in the past on LinkedIn. So again, I see potential in LinkedIn, have watched a cool video on how it can be used, have spoken about it at the 2008 NLA/NEMA conference, but have not yet made full use of LinkedIn.