Sixty-five percent. That’s the proportion of professionals who use networking sites in their work! This result, from a study conducted by i4cp (formerly HRI) with 323 organizations, shatters preconceived ideas about information-sharing sites. While such sites are often perceived as being for teenagers or students, an increasing number of professionals have grasped the interest of information-sharing online.
The main benefit of these sites is the creation of a network between employees of the same company to facilitate the exchange of information between internal and remote employees. The other significant advantage is to connect with potential customers, present the company and showcase its assets.
These tools are also used by professionals to improve and share their knowledge on very specific topics. They can ask questions about the issues they encounter in their work, and expect a quick, detailed answer. Another clear asset of these virtual meeting platforms is of course for recruiting and tracking potential candidates.
So watch out, the next time you see your teenager surfing MySpace, Facebook or Craigslist—he or she may be looking for a job!