The Network Social

Mike Donoghue is a member of a multinational information technology corporation where he collaborates on the communications guidelines and customer relationship strategies affecting the interactions with internal and external clients. He has analyzed, defined, designed and overseen processes for various engagements including product usability and customer satisfaction, best practice enterprise standardization, relationship/branding structures, and distribution effectiveness and direction. He has also established corporate library solutions to provide frameworks for sales, marketing, training, and support divisions.

  Communications Management   Knowledge Management   Lessons Learned   Talent Management  

It wasn’t that long ago when people used phones and other types of methods of communications before the existence of Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn and other social networking sites (you remember that far back, don’t you?).

As a result of their exponential rise in popularity, the evolution of this medium has caused the old adage of “it’s who you know” to be ramped up to be more inclusive of “it’s what you know” and “it’s where you know them from”. The names and contacts may still be there, but the über-extensive, Web-linked and worldwide network we are now privileged to be a part of has helped us make stronger and more pertinent connections when it comes to information, collaboration, partnerships and projects.

In the olden days, networking involved setting up a daisy chain of friends, family and contacts of any sort so as to make an acquaintance that could potentially turn into a beneficial relationship. Unfortunately, this technique was often restrictive. Access to individuals was dependent upon a funnel-like structure that could be easily blocked by those who didn’t have the impetus to further push into their own contact list and increase the number of connections. The difficulty in these structures also often meant that people would experience a number of degrees of separation from their …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.