President’s Letter

You should use social Web sites

by Steve Roll, National President; Senior State Tax Law Editor, State Tax Report

After watching Rex Hammock’s demonstration of the latest Web 2.0 applications at ASBPE’s national conference in August, I resolved to learn how to use social networking Web sites. I was intrigued by reports that Facebook claims to have over 50 million active users.

I began by setting up a profile on LinkedIn, whose users are generally older and more professionally oriented than those on other sites, such as My Space or Facebook. A LinkedIn profile has basic professional information, e.g. job titles and responsibilities. LinkedIn is searchable, so I included the words “state tax,” which relates to what I write about. Two weeks later, a recruiter from a big-four accounting firm called to see if I’d like to write about state tax issues for them. She wouldn’t reveal her sources, but I’m convinced that she found my profile on LinkedIn. Alas, the job was not for me.

The next task is to make “connections” (LinkedIn) or “friends” (Facebook or My Space). One way to do this in LinkedIn or Facebook is to allow the sites to sort through your e-mail contact lists. Using this process in LinkedIn, I sent invitations to people I already knew who had profiles on the site. Those who accepted my invitation became “connections.” After someone becomes a connection you can view the profiles of their connections. This allows you to identify the contacts of your contacts. A successful job search can depend on other people’s contacts.

Some people say that most of the connections on LinkedIn are useless because people make connections with mere acquaintances. However, Malcolm Gladwell notes in The Tipping Point that these weak contacts are fertile grounds for job offers. What seems to yield the best results in LinkedIn is a large number of connections. Internet marketing guru Guy Kawasaki says people with more than 20 connections are 34 times more likely to be approached with a job opportunity than people with less than five.

LinkedIn is also a good place for finding sources for stories. One reporter recently noted on ASBPE’s discussion forum that he used LinkedIn to find long lists of current and former employees of two high-profile companies he was writing about for Newsweek Japan.

The Facebook adventure

Facebook caters to a younger and more informal crowd than LinkedIn. After making my first Facebook “friend” with a 20-something reporter at my company, I discovered a vast generation gap between us in terms of notions about privacy. Her profile features her thoughts about religion, sexuality, and politics. It is this “openness” on Facebook to which people over 30 (or 40 in my case) must acclimate themselves.

Unlike LinkedIn, Facebook makes it easy for enthusiasts or organizations to set up a “group” page, which can serve as a club that often features discussion forums, pictures, and videos. Recently ASBPE, Folio:, and TABPI set up group pages. The ASBPE page has a short film, a discussion forum, and a slide show of last summer’s national conference.

What’s the point of all of this? Both LinkedIn and Facebook are useful tools for building a community. As ASBPE’s president, one of my responsibilities is to foster communities of journalists in the business press. It is also the responsibility of business journalists to connect with one another and the people in the industries they cover. So say “yes” the next time someone you know sends you an invite from the social networking world.

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