Thanks for writing your first blog comment on our blog. This is a real privilege for me, thank you so much.

CULTURE
I find your point about cultural differences in social networks quite interesting. For instance, I started Xing – Social Media Monitoring (click on link to the left) in early November and it has taken until yesterday to get about 75 members.

Yes, Christmas Holidays may have made it a bit more difficult to attract new members.  It also took until late January until we got into swing of things (i.e. other people commenting and contributing regularly besides the moderators).

This indicates THREE things

1) Europeans take their public holidays seriously — and let the social networking side of things rest while focusing on family instead

2) As Rachel Happe comments more than 90% of blog readers or group members on networks like LinkedIn or Xing are lurkers that read but rarely if ever contribute to the discussions. It takes time to jump into the water and start commenting – see your experience with blogs although you are active in Xing groups I know.

3) Related to point 2 is Judy Dunn's comment that suggests that for most people it is difficult to write a comment or meaningful answer online going beyond the 'I like this.'

So building a group on LinkedIN might go a bit faster than Xing. Nevertheless,  this does not mean that the quality of the latter is worse. In fact, as you point out, self-branding and spam is less of an issue on Xing compared to LinkedIn.

MECHANICS
What does help is if one can get a daily digest (LinkedIn) or an RSS feed (Xing) of those groups one is a member of. Unfortunately, neither LinkedIn offers an RSS feed for groups nor does Xing a daily digest via eMail.

As well, with Xing I had to first figure out that the group had to become open to enable the setting up of an RSS feed.
As with Facebook or other places, both LinkedIn and Xing are not that great as far as usability is concerned. You kind of have to learn how to make the mechanics/features work best for you.

I remember the wonderful time when one got a manual (paper it was) and one could read it and find answers using the subject index in the back. But that seems to be out of fashion considering that neither Twitter nor Facebook, LinkedIN nor Xing have any of these things…. not even a proper pdf file.

What a shame and surprise at the same time. Amazing that users are willing to put up with this kind of bad user experience….

But even software vendors like aMember appear to prefer ignoring usability issues instead of improving user experience. For instance,  making it impossible to remove a user from autoresponder mails (uncheck option box for a particular user, she still gets autoresponder mails). Worst is that users apparently seem willing to accept such shabby service  and for me worst is that some vendors appear to get away with it….

==> http://amember.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11478...

Cecilia, thanks so much for sharing and I hope that you will comment again soon on our blog

Urs
My.ComMetrics.com – benchmark your blog – improve performance
(PS. leave your email address if you wish to get the latest post that way – see field upper right column on blog).

Yes, personally I think Xing helps me a lot, there is less spam. It is relationship based business site In general, people are a little more low key and hones. I and many people( they told me) have luck with Xing. It's different mentalities and cultures. Many times I got referrals, recommendations, suggestions that either lead into true honest friendships or business.

I just started spending times on LinkedIn. I spend 10-15 mins each day. I choose a very few groups I like I belong and friends' recommendation. I got useful information, and most people connect me who are not strangers.(many I already know & met in person) I am not an open-netowrker, not in high-tech, not HR person, not a sales, not in retails/wholesales. Thus, in general LinkedIn is not helping me much, but I got some insight and learn something new
Urs, this is my first time commenting on blogs and so far I enjoy it. Best wishes!

“Social media is a part of Marketing strategies. If companies need to be recognized, to be found and known, so social media is one component and a very critical one.”

I also agree with joining alone will not bring one much (see my reply above) instead “join selected groups and participate in the discussions” will be the best strategy.

I tweeted about the evolution thing – we have to adjust as follows:

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change (Charles Darwin) #quote (click on the link to the left).

But I have yet to get a contract through LinkedIn. Through Xing I have made connections that resulted in referrals that let the cash register ring.

Cecilia, thanks for sharing and hope to read your next comment soon on one of our blog posts

Same for me, I had too many groups I was a member of myself and discovered it just took too much time… so focus is key it looks like.

Thanks for sharing.

Thus, people/customers/clients, companies, professionals can find us. It's brand building, promoting(PR), recognition for companies as well as individuals. Social media is a part of Marketing strategies. If companies need to be recognized, to be found and known, so social media is one component and a very critical one.

I think only join the sites won't help much, it is passive marketing. However, join selected groups and participate in the discussions will help. Group members will know you and mention your name and your company and refer your business(either products and services) to others. Give a time frame for short term goal — 6, 9, or 12 months and see what we can gain from these social media business sites.

In business world, everything is changing very fast, so we have to learn, to change and to adapt in order to keep up and compete with our competitors.
Cecilia Leung-
M.S Marketing, R.E investment/Development, Special projects

You are certainly right Xing is very different from LinkedIn indeed.

For starters some things I came across:

1) When joining a group on Xing, one can set one’s settings to get a daily digest of messages or a summary of the day vs. each message whenever it happens as one can get on LinkedIn

2) Xing is most certainly good to get contacts in Germany but the ‘culture’ is a bit more formal than what seems to be happening on LinkedIn groups. Some groups are in German other in English…

3) Groups I have joined addressing social media, luxury brands, B2B stuff are quite lively on LinkedIn while Xing is far less alive it seems.
This can be good or bad but at this stage I feel “Where is the beef” when it comes to Xing groups, but maybe I joined the wrong ones.

4) You want to start a group with Xing? Well you can try but the service is such that you may not even get a polite no… zero response. Similar to the early days with LinkedIn so there might still be some room for improvement for Xing. Let us wait and see.

Who is better – depends where you live …. what you want…. both have their good and not so good sides, try both and let yourself be surprised but watch the time you spend on these things.

Good luck with networking and I am glad you and I met on LinkedIn.

Urs
@ComMetrics

Nils
.-= ´s last blog ..IPENFORCEMENT NOW ON TWITTER =-.

Same for me how else you and I would have met

Yes but putting time into it means also that the pay-off in form of great information or meeting helpful people like yourself takes time.

So unless you give it time – a few months maybe – it will be unlikely to do us any good.

Thanks for sharing.
.-= ´s last blog ..Current job openings =-.

There are a million lawyers on LINKEDIN and I don’t know how many business people. Anyone of them could send me some work – or tell me something interesting today. What a blessing.

.-= ´s last blog ..IP Owners Need To Do More – Including Spending MONEY =-.

Thanks for your input appreciate it very much.

Roy I think Jonas tried to answer so I will not do it here. Jonas thanks so much.

Arsento, maybe one thing I found is that at Xing some groups have few people who really contribute and others have more. Hence, it is important to find those that have several people contributing valuable stuff including moderators.

With LinkedIn I find some groups have so many active members (that is great) that I can barely keep up with the daily digest I get… I scan it but don’t have time to read it all.

Again, one needs to limit onself to the about 5 groups that are most valuable (takes time to find out) and then stick with those.

Thank you all for sharing. Look forward to the next comment from you.
.-= ´s last blog ..3 golden rules for social media marketing =-.