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I’d like to talk about the statement to the left, made by Brian Devine via Twitter yesterday morning. (I should mention that it caught my attention when it was forwarded by Jonathan Rick, who, in case you’re wondering, I met in person first and then connected with online.)
I completely agree with Brain: I do believe tha
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Comments
08.20.09
I am one of Facebook's biggest fans, but its security features leave a lot to be desired. Only recently, they went to the extent of using their users' photos for their won marketing purposes, without consulting with them first! And as for the part about having a backup to store all our contacts, I am in total agreement!
08.20.09
Is there anything to prevent you from gathering the contact info from your Facebook friends by asking them for their emails, phone numbers, etc.? It's not hard to compile a contacts database on your own.
08.20.09
I agree with you - that is why I don't rely on online services as my main form of contact management. I use the built-in MacOS Addressbook to keep all of my contact information.
I can actually sync my MacOS addressbook with both Yahoo and Google Addressbooks so I can have online access when I am not home. LinkedIn also allows you to export your connections so you can export them as a vcard and import them into your addressbook. There could be issues with version control since it's just an export-import solution and not a sync solution, but something IS better than nothing.
As far as facebook goes - people on facebook are close friends whose contact info I've got anyway so no worries there. If they also happen to be colleague-friends I have their contact in LinkedIn so I can always export that info from there.
08.20.09
LinkedIn has a contact export, actually (go to Contacts, click Export Connections at the bottom of the page). Not surprising that the site for business networking has more of a handle on people using multiple contact systems - at least until we finally get data portability (http://dataportability.org/) working in a few years, which should solve some of these problems.
Reading about layoffs in the current economy, I saw a lot of advice about making sure to have your contacts' information somewhere other than Outlook (stories of people who couldn't contact their kids' teachers, etc.). The Manager Tools podcast had a good two-parter on The Annual Layoff Immunization - pity it's not as easy to escape being at the mercy of Facebook as it is with professional systems.
08.20.09
Great points. First off, I love my rolodex, it's reliable and always a great backup. I also have to agree that if you don't like Facebook's privacy rules, simply don't use the service... I think some of these companies need to rethink their TOS, but we also need to be savvy consumers... I have an email for possible junk and an email for quality emails.
08.20.09
I think that inherently social networks weren't meant to be like our Rolodex. The way I see it, social networks should be about conversations, not storing data.
Take a look at your Rolodex right now. How did you make all of those connections? Most likely it happened through a conversation, or an idea exchange, etc.
Look at social networks as a place to maintain existing relationships and build new ones. Your Rolodex is great for managing static information about people, but it sucks for maintaining those relationships and keeping them meaningful.
What do you all think?
08.20.09
I think Ryan made some great points... Social networks are simply to build and maintain relationships... Social networks are a great place to connect quick and easily with people you want to connect with...
08.20.09
Not just build and maintain relationships and a personal friendship level, but also help with small businesses, and believe me in today’s economy we can use all the help we can get. The biggest advantage of using social networking sites to promote your business is your ability to build a network of loyal clientele. Being a “friend” of your customers allows you to mine their friend lists for more customers. Similarly, being included in multiple people’s friend list gives you added credibility and serves as a ringing endorsement. Moreover, your profile allows you to keep your customers up to date on events, specials and other useful information. Social networking sites take “word of mouth” online, and small businesses have much to gain.
08.21.09
I keep my rolodex in Outlook and I backup outlook - daily to my blackberry and weekly to my external hard drive. Yeah...a bit neurotic, but to lose that dbase would be beyond horrible!
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