March 24, 2015 To: Danielle Deveau From: Zia Allahverdiyev, Emily Corazza, Orkhan Fatullayev, Sony Ly, Joshua Otto

Submission of Formal Informational Report on Professional Social Networking Services Dear Ms. Deveau: We have prepared a formal informational report on professional social networking: its history, usage statistics, advantages, disadvantages and best practices. In our discussion of professional social networking’s history, we focus mainly on the major milestones associated with the LinkedIn network (including its disastrous 2012 security breach). We then present information on the present usage of LinkedIn and other networks, and perceived advantages (brand awareness promotion, more effective human resources management, and others) and disadvantages (IT infrastructure security threats, reduced employee productivity and others). Finally, we explore recommended best practices for individual professionals. While gathering information resources for use in the report, our group tried to strike a balance between presenting high-level academically prepared sources of information and more concrete, but perhaps less reliable sources of information and even advice available on the broader internet. This was challenging, because finding relevant academic information was difficult for some sections of the report, while finding reliable information on the wider internet was more difficult for others. Thank you and our librarian Rebecca Hutchinson for letting us use some of her time to provide us with the means to use academic databases and for teaching us how to judge the credibility, relevance, accuracy, authority, and purpose (CRAAP test) of non-academically produced information sources. Sincerely,

Zia Allahverdiyev, Emily Corazza, Orkhan Fatullayev, Sony Ly, Joshua Otto Attachment: formal report

PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL NETWORKING ENGL 119

Source: http://content.timesjobs.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Social-Media-blog-

berozgar.jpg

Prepared For Danielle Deveau

Prepared By

Zia Allahverdiyev, Emily Corazza, Orkhan Fatullayev, Sony Ly, Joshua Otto Submitted on March 24, 2015

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Summary For our ENGL 119 formal report, our team prepared an informational report about professional social networking, with an emphasis on the LinkedIn network. In this report, we present:

• A brief history of professional social networking • An overview of available usage statistics • The advantages and disadvantages to individuals and businesses when using professional

social networking services • Best practices for their use by individuals

There are many professional social networking services available on the Internet today: LinkedIn, Cofoundr, and the like. Many of the more casual services, such as Facebook or Twitter, can still be used in a professional context. It is highly recommended that individuals and businesses use professional social networking to its fullest potential to develop business relations, generate sales leads, advertise products and services, and more. Following expert advice on best practices, one can give themselves the highest chance of finding opportunities and success on their professional social networking service of choice.

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Table of Contents

List of Figures ...………..……………………………………………………………………..…iv

1.0 Introduction…………………………………..……………………………..…………………1

2.0 The History of Professional Social Networking ……………………………………………...1

3.0 Usage ……………………………...…………..…………………………..…………………..2

4.0 Advantages and Disadvantages ………………………………………………………….........3

5.0 Best Practices …………………………………………………………………………………4

6.0 Conclusions…………..…………………………..……………….…………………………...6

7.0 Recommendations…………..…………………………..……………….………………….....7

References…………..…………………………..……………….………………………………...8

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List of Figures

Figure 1: Top Social Media Websites Used by Businesses....…………………………………….2

Figure 2: Pie chart of Business Uses of Social Professional Social Networking..………………..3

Figure 3: Example LinkedIn Profile...……..……………………………………………………...5

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1.0 Introduction

The purpose of this report is to inform the reader of the rise of social media in a professional context. After, one would make an informed decision of whether or not to use the platform. Students in post-secondary education are looking for ways to maximize their chances of success in the professional world. This document was produced to respond to this need and provide information on how they could take advantage of social media to its fullest extent. The report tackles some of the history of professional social media, some of its advantages and disadvantages, basic usage statistics and an outline of best practices when using the services like LinkedIn. Services that are not LinkedIn are not extensively covered; however, one should take full advantage of other service providers to maximize brand awareness and opportunities. The information is broken down into key sections corresponding to the topics outlined above, with conclusions and recommendations sections to provide a final overview. Information was found through academic journal databases and basic web search queries. Social Media is a popular and powerful tool in today's world. With powerful ways to keep in touch with one another, social networking has taken a new stride in the last few years in the professional world. With the ease of technology, it is much easier to build and sustain business connections, and find the right people with the right skills or mindsets needed to either complete a project or start a business. Professional Social Networking has been on the rise with services such as LinkedIn, Cofoundr, Entrepreneur Connect and more. Users use these websites to find business partners or hire those with sought-after skills. The profile of a person is very similar to what one may find on a resume, except with a social networking twist. Friends and colleagues can refer to people, endorse people, support the credibility of skills and so on. Additionally, professional social networking can even act as hubs for events, a place to market businesses, generate sales leads and other business ventures. With the rise of professional social media, the possibilities and opportunities are astronomical. 2.0 The History of Professional Social Networking The history of professional social networking is centered around finding new job opportunities, climbing the career ladder, gaining human resources and providing opportunities for networking. Professional network services began in 1997 and continued to grow. SixDegrees.com and Ryze.com were pioneers. While the former was the first website that combined basic features of professional social networking, the latter introduced to people a means to leverage their business networks (Kumar). A major moment in the history of professional social networking was the foundation of a business-oriented social networking service, LinkedIn, which is now a leading professional social networking website. LinkedIn has changed the way people think about social networks, as they realized that they could benefit from social networks more than ever. LinkedIn recently announced that they hit 300 million users around the world (D’onfro). As with any other communication tool, professional social networking had its drawbacks. One of these drawbacks was a large security issue. More than 60% of LinkedIn’s hashed passwords were hacked and posted online in 2012 (Jaikumar). Researchers say that the speed at which the hackers cracked the passwords showed a weakness of the security scheme used by LinkedIn.

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Hackers used hashing protocol known as SHA-1 to steal 6.5 million passwords (Jaikumar). Although SHA-1 offered some level of security, it was obsolete and had flaws. This complication was eventually fixed when LinkedIn and other professional social networks switched from SHA-1 to two-factor authentication, which offered more levels of security. 3.0 Usage

 

Figure 1: Top Social Media Websites Used by Businesses

Source: http://www.statista.com/statistics/259379/social-media-platforms-used-by-marketers-worldwide/

 Social media is used everyday by many people all around the world. Using online social media for social networking has become more popular with the rise of the Internet. For example, LinkedIn, a social networking website, currently has “more than 347 million members in over 200 countries and territories” (“About Us | LinkedIn Newsroom.”). Many businesses also use social media websites to advertise their brand or products, among other uses. According to Statistica, the top three websites used by businesses are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, in Figure 1 above. Businesses rely on social media for much more than just advertising. Common uses for businesses are reading expert commentary on industry related matter and researching prospects, contacts and clients, as seen in Figure 2.

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Figure 2: Pie chart of Business Uses of Social Professional Social Networking

Source: http://www.statista.com/statistics/304102/popular-social-media-business-uses/  4.0 Advantages and Disadvantages   The advantages and disadvantages of professional social networking are subjective to the user as well as the industry they work in. For many individuals, social media can provide endless employment opportunities. Joining a social networking site allows users to meet and connect with future employers. Upon networking with past employees and other connections, users are introduced to many new people, allowing for new opportunities to present themselves. For businesses, social media promotes brand awareness and helps save money. Companies can use social media to advertise their products while saving on advertising fees. By advertising online, companies are able to reach out to different target audiences, such as young adults or teenagers. Social media websites such as LinkedIn, allow businesses to network with others, finding suppliers, vendors, and potential clients. In recent years, businesses have become more dependent on such websites since “human resources professionals have been facing reduced budgets and that is why recruiting through social media is becoming more important.” (Bonson, Bednarova). By using social networking sites to advertise employment opportunities, companies save money that they would otherwise spend using recruiting services. Therefore, professional social networking is crucial to businesses as it provides cost-effective methods for them to complete tasks. Generally, there may be many disadvantages of professional social media in aspects of both professional and personal life. However, only the disadvantages of social networking in companies, businesses, and workplaces are listed. The potential disadvantages are the following:

• Threat of viruses and malware: Today, there are plenty of viruses and malware in social networks. According to The Research Pedia, accessing malware in services like

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Facebook would cause very serious threats in companies or IT sectors that would result in serious damages and costs in those organizations (“Disadvantages of Social Media.”). Companies should be mindful of such risks and how to avoid them.

• Reduced work performance: Improper use of professional social networking can cause

reduced productivity in companies. Employees may spend more time on social media than needed. This may lead to the loss of time and eventually decreased performance and productivity.

• Leak of sensitive information about a company: The Research Pedia states that

employees may complain about their companies’ workload or their bosses, causing their ratings to significantly go down (“Disadvantages of Social Media.”). To avoid such a potential risk, companies and businesses should make specific policies about using social networking.

• Copyright infringement: TargetStudy states that if authors post their works to social

media, there is a high level risk of infringement (“Social Networking - Pros and Cons”), and few authors are aware of this type of risk. To avoid such risks, authors should be very careful about how they arrange and place their content on the web.

• Disadvantages on LinkedIn: Paul Chaney states that there are some limitations in the

usage of LinkedIn: First, it is most appropriate for business-to-business communication. Personal conversations are not recommended. Second, the level of advertising is not high, so advertising on LinkedIn may not be the most optimal. Next, it is implied that the usage of LinkedIn can be quite complex for start-ups, because of its wide ranged profile building (Chaney).

There are, of course, other disadvantages too; however, these are the most important and apparent disadvantages of professional social networking in a business environment.

5.0 Best Practices

Ultimately, social networks (professional or otherwise) are only media in which their users can interact. Just as there does not exist concrete, unambiguous 'best practices' for other forms of interpersonal interaction, unambiguous best practices do not exist for professional social networks either. However, a sizeable pool of knowledge collected by experts such as personal marketing and human resources specialists exists regarding generally useful strategies for profile construction and behaviour within each network.

From the perspective of individual professionals, the 'practice' of professional social networking consists of choosing which information should be shared via the 'profile' feature common to most platforms, as well as choosing which content (either original or third party) should be shared with other members of each network. The individual's aim in making these decisions is to achieve an optimal self-presentation: “The goal of self-presentation is to make others accept the images that individuals claim for themselves ... In the workforce recruiting context, job seekers must present themselves in accordance with a script and ensure that recruiters positively evaluate their image” (Chiang, Suen). Accepting the premise that “a LinkedIn profile can be used to shape an idealised portrait of one’s professional identity by displaying skills to peers and anonymous

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evaluators”, as it has been found that many professionals do (Chiang, Suen), then the set of best practices for individuals is the set that results the most ideal self-presentation.

Figure 3: Example LinkedIn Profile (own work)

At a high level, this means ensuring that the claims made by an individual's profile have strong 'argument quality' – that is, that these claims are “informative”, “valuable”, and “persuasive” – and that these claims have strong 'source credibility', where source credibility is evaluated with

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respect to the perception of an individual's evidence as “trustworthy” and “credible” (Chiang, Suen). This means individuals should aim to construct a profile that effectively and succinctly communicates as much information about their set of skills and past experiences as possible, while simultaneously ensuring that any claims they make as part of this communication can be adequately supported. To proceed beyond this academically established set of general guidelines toward a more directly actionable set of best practices, it is necessary to (cautiously) consider the more concrete advice of individual members of the professional community on profile construction. Susan Adams, a writer for Forbes, offers the following pieces of direct advice: “Write a brief but specific summary of your career that is 100-300 words long. Include telling details and quantifiable achievements.” Further, she suggests: “Do include recommendations. Recruiters read these. Get a minimum of five, and try to make them cover the range of your career.” These pieces of advice assist in improving the academically identified 'argument quality' of a profile – profiles with appropriate summary sections and well-written recommendations are both informative and persuasive. To improve the 'source credibility' of a LinkedIn profile, another writer recommends tending to the Endorsement section of the profile (where users 'endorse' one another for possessing arbitrary skills) to hide spurious endorsements from connections that aren't well known or knowledgeable (Burnham). Along the same lines, individuals are recommended to join user groups only when the group's purpose makes sense in the context of the self-presentation that they are trying to achieve. Finally, whenever possible, individuals should augment the credibility of their claims by uploading their work digitally – having a browseable portfolio is good for credibility on professional social networks for the same reasons it is in more traditional contexts (Burnham).

6.0 Conclusions

The following was gathered in the report:

• Professional Social Media is becoming a crucial element to business in modern society. • Throughout history, social media had become so rapidly popular that it defined a new age

of the Internet, dubbed ‘Web 2.0’. • 1997 sparked the era of Professional Social Networking, with services such as

SixDegrees and Ryze as pioneers. • LinkedIn became a vastly popular professional social networking service, with over 300

million users worldwide • Despite its popularity, there are some drawbacks and risks to consider before taking full

advantage of this emerging platform: security issues, credibility issues, productivity issues, potential information leakage, copyright infringement and so forth.

• The advantages are plentiful, but pertain mostly to the field one is in: connections, sales leads, and the like. Find new employers, promote brand awareness and cut marketing and recruiting costs.

• Many social media enthusiasts, researchers and journalists have very strong opinions on how one should maximize the likelihood of a prosperous professional social media

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profile. By keeping these opinions in mind, one may be able to fulfill career paths, find new and unexpected opportunities, or be fully equipped to compete in the professional world.

• Popular advice on how to maximize the allure of profiles consist of making the profile informative, valuable, persuasive, and credible via efficient and succinct descriptions, a lot of endorsements and references, and projecting valuable attributes among other tidbits of advice.

7.0 Recommendations

Based on the findings outlined in the report, it is advisable to use Professional Social Networking to its fullest potential. Both individuals and businesses can take advantage of the benefits that Professional Social Networking has to offer, keeping in mind the possible risks. In particular, it is recommended that one:

• Uses LinkedIn as a primary Professional Social Networking website due to its audience, popularity and features

• Expands social media presence by using other services as well to promote brand awareness (whether it be a personal brand or an organization's brand) or opportunities

• Keeps in mind the dangers of certain services: look at security issues, infringement issues and so on for a particular service. Defend against the worst scenarios.

• Maximizes the allure of public profiles by following popular expert advice to fit certain objectives and increase the odds of someone looking at a public profile

• Maximizes credibility criteria and contact lists by finding as many familiars and endorsing their skillsets.

• If running a business, market products or services on the platform, and/or find suitable candidates for employment by using the search engines

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References

“About Us | LinkedIn Newsroom.” LinkedIn. Web. 15 Mar. 2015.

Adams, Susan. "Forbes Cover Story Spells Out Why You Must Be On LinkedIn." Forbes. 27

June 2012. Web. 15 Mar. 2015.

Bonson, Enrique, and Michaela Bednarova. "Corporate LinkedIn Practices of Eurozone

Companies." Online Information Review 37. 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.

Burnham, Kristin. "10 Top LinkedIn Tips, Tricks." InformationWeek. 15 Nov. 2013. Web. 15

Mar. 2015.

Chaney, Paul. “Using LinkedIn for Your Ecommerce Business: Pros and Cons.” Practical

Ecommerce. 5 Dec. 2011. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.

Chiang, Johannes Kuo-Huie, and Hung-Yue Suen. "Self-presentation and Hiring

Recommendations in Online Communities: Lessons from LinkedIn." Computers in

Human Behavior: 516-24. Print. 17 Feb. 2015

"Disadvantages of Social Media.” The Research Pedia. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.

D’Onfro, Jillian, “LinkedIn Hits 300 Million Members And Is Getting Even More Aggressive

About Mobile” Business Insider N.p., 18 April 2014. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.

Kumar, Sampath. et.al. “Social Networking Site For Self Portfolio.” International Journal of

Research in Engineering and Advanced Technology 1.1 4 Mar. 2013. Web. 23 Mar.

2015.

“Popular Social Media Business Uses 2014.” Statista. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.

“Social Networking - Pros and Cons.” Target Study. 27 Nov. 2014. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.

“Social Media Platforms Used by Marketers Worldwide 2014.” Statista. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.

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Vijayan, Jaikumar. “Hackers Crack More Than 60% of Breached LinkedIn Passwords.”

Computerworld N.p., 7 June 2012. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.