Professional Potential

Some social networks, such as LinkedIn, have more obvious professional potential. The entire point of LinkedIn is to network with others in your career field. It's a more controlled form of network, as in you aren't encouraged to share personal, everyday information the way you would on Facebook. You can keep in touch with former co-workers, rate your current colleagues and have them return the favor, and connect with others who may help you out in the future. Some on my network use it to share articles on latest breaks in the field or how to improve your leadership. So in that capacity I could see it being a great help in sharing ideas among librarians, such as for programming. It was also great to be part of the Library-professional community on LinkedIn after I graduated. I worked a job that wasn't in the field and had that listed on my profile, but since I listed my industry as "libraries", I would receive weekly emails informing me of new job openings.

Even though I listed LinkedIn's professional approach as advantageous compared to Facebook's social approach, Facebook definitely has its pros. Facebook is ubiquitous these days. Everyone, from your aunt to massive restaurant chains, has a Facebook. It is one of the best ways to get word out about a product or an organization. Librarians may use the site to keep in informal touch with each other, and such an informal approach may strengthen a connection. (Although it can weaken that connection or even drive away the contact, depending how personal your postings are on Facebook!) For organizations, such as ALA or the IUPUI School of Informatics & Computing, it is a low-cost way (as opposed to say, mailers) to spread their news to members and other interested persons. Were I on campus, the Facebook posting's of the School of Informatics would be awesome--many postings are to spread awareness of events, such as showings of films done by alumni, Halloween parties thrown by the student council, and (of particular interest to my gamer self) an Extra Life charity drive. But the School also uses it to provide links to helpful tools and articles. A recent posting linked to a Forbes article that would help students improve their LinkedIn profile. So the two social media sites can work together...no need to have just one or the other!