TrendWatcher

LinkedIn has topped 1 million users. Many more socially oriented sites crossed the million-member point a while ago, including Meetup, Friendster, and Tickle. The band REM recently announced that they will be previewing their new album on MySpace. OpenBC has gone truly global, supporting German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Chinese on their site. Enterprise-oriented tools from Contact Network Corporation and Leverage Software have already garnered multiple paying customers. And tens of thousands of people are developing business relationships in ways they never did before....And yet most Internet users still haven't even heard of them.

Business networking sites are not living up to the expectations of many people. They don't effectively represent electronically the complexities of interpersonal relationships. They create awkward social situations that don't exist face to face -- such as how to deal with an explicit request to be someone's friend, something most of us haven't had to deal with since third grade. And they don't prevent spam.
But the fact that they're not yet living up to their potential shouldn't blind us from the real immediate benefits to be gained. Let's look at some of the unique benefits online networking sites offer that traditional face-to-face relationship building does not:
- searchable directory
- high visibility at low cost
- receptive audience
- easy group-forming
- visibility of your entire network.