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To women, the name of the professional networking site that is all the rage should really be LinkedOut.
While more and more men are finding their business connections the newfangled electronic way, women are decidedly old-fashioned. They still seem to prefer to network face-to-face.
According to Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, women dominate most social-networking sites. The exception is LinkedIn, which is used by only half as many women as men.
“There are a couple of reasons for this,” Nicole Williams, LinkedIn’s Connection Director and author of the book “Girl on Top,” explains. “To begin with, women tend to network in person more predominantly than online. Additionally, while men are more comfortable asking for introductions or reaching out to second- and third-level networks, women prefer to create deeper connections with or through people they know.”
“I feel like networking in person is much more effective,” confirms Sara Schoonover, vice president of TicketKick.com, a company that sells documents that help drivers beat moving violations. Like many women, Schoonover networks multiple times a month over drinks or in conjunction with professional associations to create new business connections.
Schoonover says she has no plans to bring these interactions online, except through e-mail exchanges. “I set up a LinkedIn account years ago but quickly realized I didn’t see the benefit,” Schoonover says. “Besides, if someone wants to get in touch with me they can find me on the company Web site.” Schoonover quickly adds that she’s not overly traditional: “It’s not that I don’t like social-networking sites; I just prefer to use them for my personal life instead of for business connections.”
LinkedIn’s Williams, naturally, defends the company. “Women tend to keep social media usage for personal purposes,” says Williams. “But with the workplace becoming more and more gender-agnostic every day, this is a tool they should be looking to more. Since LinkedIn is specifically for business, it’s the ideal platform for someone who wants to keep their personal and business social-networking separate,” she says.
And some women swear by LinkedIn.
“While I enjoy to network in person, I find LinkedIn is a great way for me to reach out to people in a business capacity without the contrived feeling you’d get from doing so on personal social-networking sites like Facebook, MySpace or Google Plus,” says Jamie Maxner, assistant director of a New York City-based nonprofit.
Social promotion
According to a 2011 PewResearch Center study, 56 percent of social-network site users are female, but LinkedIn users include nearly twice as manymen (63 percent) as women (37 percent).