The Social Network as a Career Safety Net

New York Times, August 14, 2008 — If you have avoided social-networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook with the excuse that they are the domain of desperate job hunters or attention-seeking teenagers, it’s time to reconsider.

In a world of economic instability and corporate upheaval, savvy professionals like the technology consultant Josh So epitomize the benefits of brushing up your online image and keeping it polished.

At Social Site, Only the Businesslike Need Apply

New York Times, June 18, 2008 — For a Web site, it could hardly look less exciting. Its pages are heavy with text, much of it a flat blue, and there are few photos and absolutely no videos.

But LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, is dull by design. Unlike Facebook and MySpace, the site is aimed at career-minded, white-collar workers, people who join more for the networking than the social.

Social Networking with the Elite

Tired of the Web masses? Now you can find your own gated communities on the Net—if they'll let you in

BusinessWeek, November 15, 2007 — Are you on the digital A-list? It's no longer enough to get invited to exclusive conferences or be asked to join professional organizations—many movers and shakers are taking their hobnobbing online, where a new crop of social networks aim to keep out the riff-raff by demanding credentials at the virtual door. As MySpace (NWS), LinkedIn, and Facebook have expanded to people of all ages, classes, and affiliations, there's a backlash against the open culture of social networking.