Working The Social Nets
We’re rather fond of the web here at The Retail People, (good job too as Multichannel is one of our areas of expertise), so we’re not averse to splashing around in the warm waters of social networking. In fact, we rather like it. Despite an overwhelming number of social networking sites, from MySpace, to Jaiku (now owned by Google), Tribe to Facebook; finding the sites that we wanted to dip our toes into was an easy decision.
The astute amongst you will have noticed that we can now be found on LinkedIn. Like most social networking sites, LinkedIn has it’s own distinct personality, its press blurb reading: “LinkedIn exists to help you make better use of your professional network and help the people you trust in return. Our mission is to connect the world’s professionals to accelerate their success. We believe that in a global connected economy, your success as a professional and your competitiveness as a company depends upon faster access to insight and resources you can trust.”
Phew! But don’t let this marketing speak put you off. In essence it’s saying that LinkedIn is a networking site for business professionals. It’s clean, simple, puts you in touch with the people you want to talk to, it’s not overloaded with applications and is low maintenance: all good reasons for us to like it.
We’re also enjoying microblogging site Twitter. Twitter is not only a great method of updating followers on our own latest news, but it offers a wealth of information in the form of other ‘twitterers’ posting links and idea sharing. It gives an immediacy of information that allows us to build a real time picture of what is happening in any given area. While some log in to share what they had for lunch, (we don’t, it’s not that interesting), Twitter can also be an important information gathering tool and a friendly way to connect with others working in your field. According to co-founder, Jack Dorsey, Twitter is what you make it.
And then there is Facebook. While many of the movers and shakers of the retail industry may not be clicking merrily through Facebook with Retail Business Solutions on their minds, by putting ourselves on Facebook we're trying to make K3 both accessible and searchable. Facebook is the most favoured networking site and the second most visited website in the UK, so, perhaps, in terms of the ‘warm waters of social networking’, Facebook is the beach where the beautiful people hang out; it is where you go to see and be seen.
Where do you like to work the net?
