Reid Hoffman just posted a fascinating article about networking and business relationships. He wrote that opportunities revolve around individuals, and you have to make real, human connections if you want to create something big. He should know. In the middle of the last decade, he and many former employees from PayPal met frequently in person while they were building some of the biggest social media properties around today.

But it’s interesting that the “PayPal mafia,” as they are known, relied so heavily on face-to-face meetings to build sites like Linkedin, which facilitates virtual ones. Are social networks simply not up to scratch for creating real human relationships?

Let’s not get carried away. First, nothing beats getting together in person. But that doesn’t mean you can’t build similar relationships online. It’s just that many people don’t or don’t even try. Part of the problem is that while social networks make it easy to connect, they also make it easy to be lazy about connecting. Want to stay in touch with someone? Simply click a like button to remind them you’re around. Want to let everyone know what you’re doing? Post a 100 character status update. Because it’s so fast and easy, and so many people are doing the same thing, your communication can easily get lost in the noise.

Social networks also tend to blur the line between shallow acquaintances and real connections. You can easily make 500+ connections on Linkedin, but it’s impossible to remain in close contact with 500+ people. If you send Paris Hilton a connection request, she (or someone who works for her) will almost certainly reply yes. But if you want a job in fashion, she’s probably not going to help you.

So how do you break out and build real relationships online? We’ve started a list of ideas below, but the basic principle is simple: Whether virtual or in person, you get out of networking what you put into it. If all you’re doing is clicking buttons, don’t be surprised that you’re not getting calls.

Anyway, here are some ideas that can help your network work harder—and feel free to add more below:

Make a plan. Figure out what you want out of your network. Then separate your connections into two camps. Those who can help you reach your goals are in your network, the others are simply friends. Don’t neglect the latter, but concentrate on the former.

Communicate one-on-one. Posting in your feed or clicking a like button is fine. But remember, you get out of networking what you put into it. When someone in your network gets a promotion, why not send a thoughtful note that shows you are paying attention to their career?

Make your connections more than professional. Reading what Reid has to say about the PayPal alumni, it becomes clear that getting together helped turn colleagues into friends. If you’re just a connection, people will hire you for your skills. But if you’re a friend, they will find and create opportunities for you if they can.

Don’t just connect with people, connect people. Networking is not a one-way or even two-way street. Actively think about things that can help your connections and reach out to them if you see an opportunity. They’ll do the same for you.

Stay persistent. Even if people don’t respond, don’t get discouraged. Networking is work, after all, and you have to realize that not everyone is going to answer your requests immediately.

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list, merely a few thoughts on getting started. If you have additional ideas, and especially for ways that brands and companies can “network,” please add them in the comments below. As I said, what you put into sites like Linkedin is what you get out of them. A thoughtful comment can always lead to a useful connection.

Today is so complicated, and we humans have become so accustomed to using alternative, easier ways to do things, that sometimes, the most obvious ideas elude us.

So what do you do when you see a perfectly good idea that you could have thought of, and didn’t? What if that idea sold to make millions, even billions in cash?
Here are some of those simple, uncluttered ideas that went on to make it big in the world of technology. Burn with envy as you read about:

1. Million Dollar Homepage

Originator(s): Alex Tew
Year: 2005
Worth: $1,037,100
How it took off: Alex Tew needed to raise money to go on and do a business degree, (since a study loan would take years to pay off); and his idea made more than a million in 5 months.
Tew saw an opportunity to make millions– in selling out space.  He made a homepage, one that consisted of 10X10 blocks of pixels, and sold them out at $10/block. Advertisers could put on any picture, from their logo to any other picture, which would be linked to their site at the back end. The last 1,000 pixels were put up for sale on eBay. His was so deceptively simple and neat an idea that he cashed in on $1,037,100 in just about 5 months!

2. Facebook

Originator(s): Mark Zuckerberg
Year: 2004
Worth: $70-$100 billion
How it took off: Sure, there have been a lot of other social networks before Facebook, but none of them made it this big. So what made Facebook this hot? Well, it was personal (note the ‘was’) and you could personalize your settings to keep things personal and yet connect to people you knew. Also, it was targeted at the college audience. The site was kept minimal and gave people just about what they needed, and kept improving over time to include features. Facebook filed for an IPO a couple of months ago and is in its “quiet period”, but it estimated to be worth anything from $70-$100 billion.

3. ICanHasCheezburger?

Originator(s): Eric Nakagawa and Kari Unebasami
Year: 2007
Worth: $ 9,984,120 (estimated, as per data from worthofweb.com)
How it took off: Eric Nakagawa, a blogger from Hawaii and his girlfriend Kari Unebasami, started the site with a picture of a cat that had a caption reading “I Can Has Cheezburger?” in a style that was popularized by 4Chan (an imageboard website). The pair went on to post more humorous pictures like it. According to the inspiringinterns.com blog, they later sold it for $2 million to the site’s current CEO, Ben Huh who blew the site up to six other sister websites, and brought home a book deal that made a New York Times Best Seller– the company makes about half a million from book sales alone every year! The site is said to receive as many as 1,500,000 hits and as many as 8,000 uploads from its users every day. According to worthofweb.com, the site is worth almost $10,000,000.

4. Instagram

Originator(s): Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger
Year: 2010
Worth: $ 1,000,000,000 (as per Facebook’s announcement of acquisition)
How it took off: A free photo-sharing program isn’t a bad place to start either. Kevin and Mike put their heads together to let photos get shared in a way that wouldn’t annoy those it was shared with. Users were able to see other’s pictures, follow photographers, and post their own artistic-looking photos with the help of digital filters. The photos were made to resemble the Kodak and Polaroid square-shaped pictures, and so struck a chord with the legacy of photography as well. Although Kevin and Mike had no plans to sell the site, Zuckerberg made an irresistible offer of $1 billion, and Facebook on April 9, 2012, announced that it would acquire the company, along with its 13 employees.

5. Quora

Originator(s): Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever
Year: 2009
Worth: $86 million (as of 2010, according to data from gigaOm.com)
How it took off: Two ex-Facebook engineers (Adam was Facebook’s CTO and Charlie was its head of engineering) created Quora, a Q&A website that sought to answer questions  in a way that gave quality of experience. Adam reportedly was inspired to create Quora when he thought ‘that Q & A is one of those areas on the internet where there are a lot of sites, but no one had come along and built something that was really good yet’. It has been in SiliconValley media especially since it features questions about startups and entrepreneurship (it even attracted senior Silicon Valley executives who answered questions about their experiences). It is organized and edited by its community of users, so answers are relevant to those who post questions.

6. Twitter

Originator(s): Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass
Year: 2006
Worth: $8.4 billion (as of December 2011)
How it took off: Dorsey came up with an idea (after a day-long brainstorming session with the others on Twitter’s board) that had a person communicating with a group of friends using a single SMS. Williams, Glass, and Stone later came up with a name for the service, and the way it would work. Things really took off when people started using the 140 character limit to express themselves and to keep tabs on people they knew. From 2006 to 2011, Twitter has grown from a small social medium to a platform worth $8.5 billion, with more than 140 million users worldwide. Talk about explosive growth!

7. deviantArt

Originator(s): Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff, and Matt Stephens
Year: 2000
Worth: $19 million (estimated, according to a report on entrepreneur.com)
How it took off: deviantArt, one of the biggest, longest-running social networks was created when its founders wanted “to build the deepest, most vertically integrated network that ever existed.” They’ve succeeded, and dA is the one online community for artists that has more than 14 million users, that aims at giving any artist (from the fields of art, literature, film-making, and photography)  a platform to exhibit and discuss his or her work.

8.  ashleymadison.com

Originator(s): Darren Morgenstern (as per reports from CBS news and Yahoo), Noel Biderman (as per reports on MSNBC)
Year: 2001
Worth: $ 6,549,230 (estimated, as per statistics on worthofweb.com)
How it took off: Infidelity is bad. Everybody knows it. But after people tie the knot and are still unsatisfied, this site helps them have an affair. “Life is short, Have an affair,” reads the site’s motto. But whether it’s right or wrong, it definitely is profitable–one of the founders of the ‘service’, Noel Biderman, is worth around $100 million, according to an MSNBC report.

The internet is a blessing in disguise. Though it helps the world become a smaller place, it exposes one to perils of many sorts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos, videos and personal information of oneself on social networking sites can make one extremely vulnerable and fall prey to prying eyes. Despite boasting of high security, one can never say what happens behind the bright ‘walls’ of these networking sites. It’s for reasons like this that US President Barack Obama has banned his two daughters — Malia, 13 and Sasha, 10 — from using Facebook for at least four years. However, closer home in Bangalore, you see a number of children extremely active on social networking sites without realising the negatives of it. ‘Metrolife’ interacted with a few such kids and their parents to find out how secure are they.

Though the legal age of joining Facebook is 13, the site itself suggests that youngsters between 13 and 17 years of age seek parental consent to use it. N Ganesh Babu, an area sales manager, has a 12-year-old son who uses Facebook regularly. “I agree with seventy per cent of Obama’s view. Though I feel my son is too young to be on Facebook, I have already informed him about the pros and cons of it.” Like others, Ganesh feels Facebook has a lot of advantages. “When I was a student, it used to be so difficult to get information. We had to go to the library to do our projects every time but now, everything is so easy. And I want my son to be aware of such things and communicate better with people.”

Tanya, a student of class eight of Sophia High School, feels children above 13 are old enough to be on Facebook. “We know what we are doing. Besides, Facebook provides more security options for those below 18,” she quips. Understanding the benefits and dangers of it, she says, “You can interact with all your friends easily. Of course, there are unknown people trying to talk to you which can be dangerous. But you always have a choice and can block such people,” she adds.

Her mother Shilpa, a homemaker, monitors her account once in a while. “Children these days are very clever. They know who to add to their list and who to avoid,” she says. “Facebook is good in many ways as she (Tanya) gets to connect with everyone. She also gets a lot of information on Youtube,” she adds. According to Shilpa, “Kids nowadays are pressurised to be in touch through Facebook and it’s a fashion to be on it.” However, she doesn’t allow her younger daughter to use it. “She is only eight and is too young for it,” she notes.

Counsellors feel supervision is of utmost necessity when kids are on social networking sites.

Says Shobha, a child counsellor, who works with the underprivileged children at Christel House India, “It’s very important that kids reach an appropriate age (at least 16 years) first to be on such sites.” She feels, “Small children tend to use the net just for the heck of it.

Also at their age, it’s natural to be inquisitive. So they may log on to other sites which can cause a lot of harm,” she notes. “It’s true that Facebook is a lot safer when compared to other sites. You have many security options but the question is are children aware of it?” she asks.

Shobha advises parents to keep a tab on their children’s activities on the net. “Parents and teachers can give children an hour a day to use the internet and supervise them at the same time. Also, inform them about the pros and cons of the net. As they grow older, you can go slow on the rules,” she sums up.

What is Timeline

Social networking site Facebook’s latest service Timeline has been globally rolled out. The company said Timeline had so far been available only to a few people, but now it had made it available to everybody.

Timeline was announced by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the f8 conference in September. Here’s all you need to know about Facebook Timeline.

 

Timeline allows users to compile and let others see everything they have shared so far, from photos, stories to shared videos and music.

Some of the things a user can do on Timeline are: edit his basic info, jump to the past, view his activity log, check highlights from each month, star stories he wants to highlight, add life events, update his status, view and add photos and share his app activity

How it is different from your current profile

Presently, only latest pictures or posts of users are visible, while large part of the previous posts are hidden. The only way to retrieve them is to scroll down and click on “More Stories”.

Timeline on the other hand retains a user’s older posts, photos etc and also groups them datewise making it easy and convenient for viewing.

Activating Timeline

To get timeline, a user needs to simply go to the Introducing Timeline page and click on ‘Get It Now’. Or he can wait till he receives an announcement at the top of his profile.

How it works

Once a user upgrades to Timeline, he will get seven days to review everything that appears on his Timeline before anyone else can see it. You can also choose to publish your timeline at any time during the review period.

If a user decides to wait, his Timeline will automatically go live after seven days. His new timeline will replace his profile, however, all his stories and photos will remain there.

Users who want to see how their Timeline would appear to other people, can click on the ‘gear menu’ at the top of their Timeline, and select “View As.” This shows them how their Timeline will appear to a specific friend or public.

Friends List

For those who always keep their Friends List private, Timeline is a curse as it prominently displays just how ‘popular’ you are on Facebook and who all are connected with you.

There is no apparent way to turn it off, unlike earlier settings. This may be a major put-off for those who do not want to share their Friends List with all and sundry for various reason

Life out in the open

Timeline puts your life out in the open like never before. Unlike the earlier single webpage design where older content – shares, status updates, notes, likes, comments, photos and notes – kept getting buried under labyrinths of time, Timeline’s scrapbook interface has now given an excellent tool to people to datamine others’ Facebook.

This may not be such a great news for those not keen on sharing each and everything from their life with everyone. So before rushing to Publish your Timeline, it is advisable to spend hours and hours reviewing what content you don’t want to share, and delete or remove from Timeline. You get a week before Timeline will automatically go live on December 23, even if you decide not to publish.

Activity Log

Activity Log is a place where users can review all their posts and activity, from today back to when they first started using Facebook. Only users will be able to see their activity log.

A user will be able to see two dropdown menus next to each story in their activity log. The first is to see and adjust the privacy of a post. The second one is to allow a user to decide if he actually wants a post to appear on his timeline. Users can feature, hide or delete any of their posts.

As for how to find a certain story, post or photo, all a user needs to do is click the “All” dropdown at the top of his activity log and select what he is looking for.

Timeline on my mobile

 

Apart from making Timeline available on Web, Facebook has also launched Timeline on Android and m.facebook.com.

Mobile timeline starts with a user’s unique cover photo. As a user scrolls down, he will see his posts, photos and life events as they happened. Photo albums and other posts are horizontally swipeable, so that one can view multiple photos or posts inline without leaving timeline. A user can also swipe through the views at the top of his timeline to navigate to your map, photos, subscribers and more.

Facebook and other social network services offer far more than just the chance to organise a party or show friends your holiday photos.

According to the German trade association Bitkom, social networks serve especially well for identity management – or the presentation of individual interests, experiences, opinions or competence.

In addition, it assists in relationship management with the maintenance of contacts and making new relationships as well as information management. Those who want to be effective publicly for business or personal reasons must be present on the web.

‘Social networks are not just a channel which can be used in the same way as a local newspaper or perimetre ad in the local stadium,’ said author Thomas Pfeiffer. ‘Social networks are more like an open house day. People are invited in and you want to present your best side.’

The decisive difference to the traditional marketing is that there is a back channel. Therefore, according to Pfeiffer, you have to continually answer questions – even if that can be downright annoying.

The design of one’s profile should take into consideration the features of the different networks, according to the Hamburg native Kixka Nebraska, who counsels clients through the first steps of the social networks. ‘It is important to acquire a specific media competence for these portals. It is a culture technique that must be learned.’

Facebook, the world’s largest social network with 800 million members, suggests users be authentic, likeable and expressive. ‘Those are things of which you should be mindful – just like in real life,’ according to spokeswoman Tina Kulow.

Google+ offers an especially extensive space for self-presentation – which should not necessarily lead users to write long texts. The attention span on the web is limited.

The short message service Twitter is an entirely different world. It seems like the beginning is especially difficult. ‘First, write well. Second, write something useful. Good content is essential for every publication – even if it only comes in 140-character bites,’ suggests Twitter expert Pfeiffer. ‘Answer the questions of other Twitter members even if they are not directed at you but also at the general public.’

In Twitter, it’s good when the resonance increases through the number of followers and re-tweets. The personal network meanwhile is the centre of attention in Facebook and Google+. In those networks you must continually decide if you want to accept a contact or with Google+ put them into you own circle of friends.

‘It is important that people consciously consider with every friend request if they really want to be friends with that individual,’ said Kulow. One should not have a bad conscience if a friend request is denied.