Last February my mother turned 62 and Facebook celebrated its sixth birthday. Their birthdays fall two days apart, and while astrologers might call that compatibility, the real reason my mother enjoys Facebook is simpler: more of her peers are joining every day. Between November 2008 and April 2009, women over 55 were Facebook’s fastest-growing demographic, increasing by an astonishing 550 percent. Men in the same age group followed suit, pushing the total number of users over 55 to roughly 6 million — more than the number of high school students on the site.
Facebook is no longer just a place for teenagers. What began as a Harvard project by Mark Zuckerberg has grown into a leader of so-called “Web 2.0,” the era of interactive, information-sharing applications designed to enhance connectivity and collaboration. By December of that year, Facebook reported about 350 million members producing roughly 200 billion page views a month — outpacing eBay and Wikipedia and closing the gap with Google. The platform has evolved beyond friend-finding and photo albums into a powerful professional tool.
“Facebook is a business network,” writes Time magazine’s Lev Grossman, noting that networking is only useful if the people you connect with can hire you or help your career. Grossman argues that Facebook’s richest expression may be among middle-aged users who bring professional and social value to the platform.
But is Facebook the best place to conduct business, connect with clients, or recruit talent? The site offers features like restricted “work profiles,” vanity URLs, news feed promotions, and ways to research contacts. Yet despite its breadth — some 500,000 applications and counting — Facebook remains a generalist platform. Hundreds of specialized social networks serve distinct professions and interests: nurses gather on NurseLinkup.com, lawyers on Lawyrs.net, and creative professionals on Mediabistro.com.
Enter LinkedIn. Launched in 2003 as a business-focused social network, LinkedIn claims about 55 million members worldwide, roughly half in the United States and the rest spread across more than 200 countries. It represents more than 170 industries and includes executives from many Fortune 500 companies. LinkedIn’s “gated-access” model emphasizes privacy and trust: unlike Facebook, where anyone can send a friend request to a searchable user, LinkedIn often requires introductions through mutual contacts for users who lack a prior connection.
That approach appears effective. During the global recession, LinkedIn’s traffic more than doubled as people who had been laid off flocked to its job boards, uploaded résumés, and sought recommendations. Employers increased their presence, too; roughly 80 percent of companies use LinkedIn as a primary recruiting tool. Beyond job searches, LinkedIn offers “Company Pages” to explore organizations and “LinkedIn Answers” to consult experts. With so many professionals active on the site, a LinkedIn profile has become a virtual business card — recommended whether you’re job hunting or not.
When creating a LinkedIn profile, follow basic online etiquette and complete your information, advises Liz Ryan, Business Week Online’s workplace columnist and former Fortune 500 HR executive. A sparse profile suggests you expect others to search a database while offering little in return. Ryan also warns against cold contacts and overuse of profile-update broadcasts; use those sparingly. Be transparent about your intentions — whether you’re seeking a job, investors, or partnerships — and treat online interactions with the same respect you would in person.
One crucial difference between face-to-face networking and social networking is the security risk. Social platforms, with their vast amounts of personal data, are attractive to cybercriminals. Gerhard Eschelbeck, CTO at Webroot, explains that as social networks grew, so did malware and social-engineering attacks. Cybercriminals often distribute malicious links that appear near the top of search results for trending news stories, increasing the likelihood of engagement.
A Webroot survey of 1,100 social network users found risky behaviors: about one-third shared at least three pieces of personally identifiable information; two-thirds did not restrict profile visibility from search engines; more than one-third reused passwords across sites; and fewer than half understood who could view their profile. “Social networkers need to know who can see what they share and how to spot bogus posts and emails,” Eschelbeck says. User education is key.
Companies have added security layers to protect employees, but mobility introduces new vulnerabilities. Using unprotected wireless networks in public spaces like airports increases infection risk, and abundant personal details make it easier for attackers to guess answers to password-reset questions. Security evangelist Ryan Naraine of Kaspersky Lab highlights ongoing threats like the Koobface attacks, which target users on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter by prompting victims to install fake Adobe Flash updates after clicking a bogus video link.
If an account is compromised, Naraine recommends assuming the device is infected: clean it with up-to-date anti-malware software, change usernames and passwords once the machine is clean, remove traces of malicious activity, and warn your contacts. These steps help limit further damage.
Despite an increasingly complex threat landscape, the security industry is advancing. Eschelbeck points to growing adoption of cloud-based security and scalable data center models as strengthening defenses for both businesses and consumers. He predicts continued growth of cloud computing, comparing its evolution to utility services like electricity: computing becomes a metered service, the PC serves as a portal, and cloud platforms expand as organizations capitalize on economical, scalable infrastructure.
Security challenges are likely to persist, but one thing is clear: social networking is here to stay, and business will remain a major part of it. Whether that outcome is beneficial largely depends on how thoughtfully users and organizations adopt and secure these platforms.