Networking Pitfalls

I’m not usually an early adopter of internet stuff. I was certainly not among the first to use the social networking sites or shop on line, yet I’ve come to embrace the need to stay ahead of the curve. As a result, when I received an invitation from Carson Tang to join Naymz, I didn’t hesitate.Carson, whom I have known via I-Con for something like 25 years, is an early adopter and I thought just this once, I’d leap in feet first.It offered to access some of my professional networking sites including LinkedIn or rifle through my Outlook contacts and invite people to join my network and have them right recommendations for public viewing. The key behind Naymz seems to be that potential employers can check out a candidate’s professional reputation by scanning names here.In theory it’s not a bad idea and maybe this will grow in importance. Various colleagues, friends and acquaintances all wrote glowing things and then some e-ailed me separately to inquire if this was a scam. Others wrote to proudly announce they wrote some “lies” and hoped it would lead to work.And here’s the thing. We all want to see our peers do well so yes, we’ll burnish each other’s reputations, skipping flaws that might be germane to a project. This could, theoretically, boomerang and make an employer think we’re nuts or our own word is diminished. Given how close some of our networks are, this could have repercussions.Now, is Naymz for real? It’s too early to tell. I’ve found some of the networking sites useful to find old pals an din some cases actually make connections that has led others to getting work. Some are just social and that’s fine, there’s a place for that.But for business networking, I see we need to tread cautiously and that’s where being an early adopter may not have been the wisest course of action. Guess we’ll see.