AIXπ

How many social/professional networking directories do you need?

I got a LinkedIn account quite a while ago, just signed up and forgot about it. In January I read an article about how to use LinkedIn by Guy Kawasaki which came up with 10 tips on what to do to use LinkedIn more efficient. Then I started to upload my outlook contacts to LinkedIn and checked out which guys already where signed up at LinkedIn – quite a few, surprise! These guys were the first to interconnect with and than I just bombed everyone in my contact list with an invitation, quite shameless you may claim. I agree it felt a bit uncomfortable just to spam people in that way but about 2/3 of them gave LinkedIn a try and are now connected with me. Last week I got an invitation to Xing, formerly known as OpenBC. I thought ok, you spammed so many people with your invitations now you have to be that fair and accept this invitation as well. And what should I say, Xing is even better than LinkedIn or, wait a second it depends on what you are looking for. Xing provides the option to provide more detailed information about you and what you are looking for. As well as the look and feel of Xing give the impression of a more mature platform for business relations management and stuff like that. The big disadvantage seems to be it’s more or less suited to the German market. I believe one of the major advantages with the name change from OpenBC to Xing will be the re-orientation of the platform to the international market. Xing was founded by Lars Hinrichs, I saw him in a tv-interview where he said that Xing should now perform what OpenBC never did, grow internationally. We will see if Xing will succeed. As I’m merely a lazy guy I would love to see that Xing grows that much so they will takeover LinkedIn – as then I wouldn’t have struggle with two platforms for my connections. Time will surely give an answer to the question in the headline.

.

“XING makes your professional network an active part of your life. Far more than a directory of business contacts, XING enables its members to discover professional people, opportunities and privileges through its unique discovery capability and advanced contact management tools. Its novel approach to professional services has resulted in OPEN Business Club AG being named one of the world’s hottest Web 2.0 startups by Business 2.0/CNN Money and one of Europe’s “Top 100” by Red Herring. Founded in August 2003, OPEN Business Club AG’s global network manages tens of millions of member-to-member connections across 16 languages and all industries, with “real world” events held around the world. OPEN Business Club AG currently employs an international team of 67 people from 13 nations, with its headquarters based in Hamburg (Germany), and offices in Beijing (China) and in Zurich (Switzerland). XING. Powering Relationships.”

”Your professional relationships are key to your professional success. Our mission is to help you be more effective in your daily work and open doors to opportunities using the professional relationships you already have. This isn’t networking—it’s what networking should be. Forget exchanging business cards with acquaintances that don’t know your work, or trying to renew professional ties when you need a favor. LinkedIn is an online network of more than 9 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 130 industries.“