So one of the main problems I see with the social networking sites is their ability to attract and engage some of the people they need most -- those who already are busy, plugged in, totally connected and have huge "old world" networks.
Lately, I've been building networks extensively on LinkedIn. I've also used Orkut, Ryze, and Always On Network. As I have mentioned before, for me, LinkedIn is by far the best. I don't get spam from it and its business focus is crisp.
To get busy people engaged, social networks need a Bulk Request Handler
Just yesterday, the glaring need for conveniently handling bulk requests came up in a meeting with Patti Wilson, CEO of The Career Company and Laura Merling, Executive Director of SD Forum. We were chatting about LinkedIn. Patti mentioned that LinkedIn was super for building her business and very useful for her. Laura shared that a. she had tons of email already and that networking using a tool like LinkedIn that would generate tons more -- and that that was too much like adding more work, plus b. forwarding requests from people who are further down her network might give people an impression of endorsement that she is unable to correctly give. Yet people like Laura are critical to LinkedIn's success. What if you could set up rules for requests? What if you could automatically forward requests from network members based on those rules? (Every direct request from Joe Smith is automatically forwarded with a "standard" message. with perhaps other messages you could use for requests further down the tree.) This would still allow those who choose to personally deal with every request, but you could also sell this to people who otherwise won't get involved because of the 10 requests they'll get every day because they are so connected. And guess what? Those people you have to have in your network!
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