Social Elements on Professional Networking… Why?
November 2nd, 2007
By now I am sure you are aware that NetHooks provides its users the option to display a My Personal page where you can include a profile photo, pictures and other personal information.
The purpose of the My Personal Page is to include a personal / social touch to your professional profile. The motivation behind this feature is the thought that at some point in your professional networking, your connections might want to know the face behind the profile. They may also be interested to know what social traits you have in common.
Perhaps you are thinking …why do I need a My personal page on NetHooks when I already have a Facebook account? The NetHooks My Personal page is not meant to replace your Facebook account (in the very near future, you will be able to import your Facebook information into NetHooks). For the record, we love Facebook. But Facebook is a social networking site (and NetHooks is a professional networking site). Because of this, sharing all of the personal/social information from your Facebook account may not be appropriate for professional networking. The NetHooks My Personal page allows you to include appropriate photos and information for a social touch while still keeping things professional.
How will it work with HR and hiring managers since looking at photos while making hiring decisions could possibly lead to discrimination lawsuits? We have setup a privacy tool which allows users to decide who gets to see your My Personal profile. This privacy tool gives you 3 options.
Option 1 – Public: Allows you to display your My Personal page publicly to everyone on NetHooks. So when users visit your profile on NetHooks either directly or through the Search Network page, the My Personal tab will be visible.
Option 2 - Private: Allows you to completely shut your My Personal page on NetHooks. Although the page can still be viewed by you through your Member Portal, others will not be able to see this page. Making your my Personal page Private rather than deleting it completely, leaves it open for future use.
Option 3 – Public to select users: This option allows you to decide who gets to see your My Personal page. You will be presented with a list of your connections and from there you can select those who will see your Personal page. Those who are not selected to view your page will not even know that you have a My Personal page. In fact, you can even set a completely different url for your My Personal page than for your Profile page.
So back to the question, why did NetHooks include social elements in Professional Networking? Simple. Not everyone who uses NetHooks is looking for a job. Some are connecting with their professors, some are soliciting business or performing contract work and some are casually looking to connect with other professionals. For all these scenarios and more… social elements within a professional profile may be the icing on the cake for professional networking. Besides, since this feature is optional and can be turned off and on, you have full control on how you want to use it.
We wish you the best in your networking efforts. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or feedback.