Specialty business networking sites are popping up everywhere. It can be fun to belong to a smaller online community where it is easier to find businesses similar to yours. The downside is that may of these sites have more relaxed rules than their larger competitors. If you use a niche business networking site, you’re sure to meet these five people along the way.
1. The Shameless Self Promoter—(Sometimes known as the spammer) This person has no regard for the rules posted on the site. They are usually the sellers of the most outrageous get rich quick schemes. Beware. They will post giant ads to your guest book with a teeny tiny message (as if this legitimizes it). They will post non-stop in forums with ridiculous and unrelated products, and if they get hold of your real e-mail address, you might as well change it.
2. The Critic—You can usually spot this person right away. Their comments often start with “I don’t want to sound critical, but ...” When a comment starts out that way, don’t read the rest. You’ve just met The Critic, and they do want to sound critical; they just don’t want to admit it.
3. The Lounge Lizard—Watch out, ladies! This is likely to be one of the first networking requests you get. If you check their profile, they are only networked with women and their Web sites look like they took about ten minutes to setup. These men are there to find dates, not network. If we all ignore them, hopefully they’ll go away.
4. The Know-It-All—In the beginning you may actually get some good advice from the know-it-all, but they quickly become tiresome. In the end, it’s all about them and they’ll just keep on posting even if they’re off topic and even when they’re just restating what everyone else said.
5. The Genuine Networker—Yes, they are out there. Whether they’re just starting out or they’ve built an enormous network, they are the reason we sift through the other four types. They are the real deal and when find them and connect with them our time is well spent.
Online business networking can be very rewarding, but it also be time consuming. As this list shows, it’s important to be careful which networks you join if you want to make the most out of the time you spend doing online business networking. If your business networking site seems to have very few people in category number five, then it is time to switch.
