How learning from nature can progress online networking

As ants are social insects, they are unable to live on their own so survive in organized communities, or colonies. An ant colony starts with a reproductive female queen, whose eggs turn into larvae. After significant fortitude and no-less nurture by the queen, worker ants are spawned, tireless in their quest for the nest’s growth.

Once the development of the first workers is complete the queen relinquishes most of her roles and the colony passes through a growing phase, not only in population but also in nest size and the area over which the workers forage for food. This phase may take some years and some species live in colonies with up to millions of individuals dwelling together at any one time.

Engaging in social media is a lot like living as these omnivorous insects.

Today’s face-paced, rapid and ever-expanding world means that we are constantly hurrying around, each focused on completing one task after another. Some of these tasks are self-fulfilling, others subservient. On occasion we may find ourselves in challenging positions and when this happens we look to our comrades and associates for help and guidance. And is these difficult times, this is wholly welcomed.

We all know that social media is no longer an emerging force; it is an expanding global phoenominum. The way in which we are able to interact with each other has changed forever. Instant messaging services such as Twitter; life-sharing sites like Facebook and You Tube; and business networking pages including Ecademy, provide us with the platforms to engage with peers, build relationships with otherwise unreachable associates, and, through all this, increase our knowledge and chances to develop better, more substantial career opportunities.

LinkedIn is Queen

Sitting atop the plinth of business social networking, however, is LinkedIn: the metaphorical queen of professional engagement. Although comparably rigid in its Web 2.0 functionality and not quite as gregarious as some of its more energetic counterparts, LinkedIn has undoubtedly transformed the way companies and business people adopt professional interaction.

However, just when we were becoming accustomed to its clunky ways we are presented with the flexibility of sub-groups. These are the intertwining branches from the main group tree, which act as diminutive chambers of the central dependency; lessoning the importance of the settlements leader and so enabling a more democratic membership. Amidst the mass of communication and information-scrabbling it is now even easier to not only disseminate knowledge but also absorb it and, better still, make it relevant.

As the importance of LinkedIn becomes increasingly palpable, so the number of users makes the management of the group header so much harder to control. Indeed many groups are getting out of hand and instead of strengthening the knowledge pool, in fact only lesson its appeal. In some instances a group may have more than 100,000 members, the majority of which will be little or no use to you, despite apparently sharing a common interest or career denominator.

Sub-grouping

So sub-groups come along and instantly compartmentalize the entire structure, making it easy to navigate and join the club you signed up for in the first place. If you had designs of managing your own group but didn’t know how or, more likely, couldn’t find the time, these little pockets make it a whole lot easier. This shares the load with main group owners and brings a meeting of minds to further enhance the networking potential.

LinkedIn’s latest initiative has opened the door to a new wealth of opportunity and enterprise.

A community of 10,000 marketers

As the largest UK marketing group on LinkedIn, www.onlymarketingjobs.com is currently experiencing its own exciting metamorphism, with more than 10,000 members now able to categorize themselves further into groups entirely relevant to their areas of interest. From charity marketing to product development; brand management to FMCG; and all things SMO, there is now a marketing group to titillate anyone’s fancy, whilst retaining the benefits that continue to encourage UK professionals to join.

Being reliant on one core feeder, whilst altogether effortless, is not the most effective way to build your career. You need at least a semblance of autonomy. With this in mind Only Marketing Jobs is inviting new members and sub-group managers to join and enhance the experience.

Death of the Queen

A note can be taken from ant world: following the death of the queen, in general the colony is able to survive just a few months, as queens are seldom replaced and the workers are not able to reproduce. Whilst LinkedIn has presented us with a fantastic opportunity to engage, network and develop our business contacts we should make the most of its munificence.

Much of what we are able to obtain from LinkedIn will be relevant now, but it is the future we should be considering and for that we need colonization.

To join a sub-group or even manage one here is the complete list of sub-groups in the www.onlymarketingjobs.com group:

Charity/Not-for-Profit Marketing

Digital/Online Marketing Professionals

CRM Professionals

Advertising & Agency-side Professionals

Social Media Marketing | SMO

PR & Communications Professionals

Creative & Design Professionals

Product Management Professionals

Channel Marketing UK

B2B Marketing

Brand, Licensing and Merchandising Professionals

Simon Lewis | Editor | Only Marketing Jobs

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1. How to make the most of your LinkedIn networking
2. How to get the best out of the Only Marketing Jobs LinkedIn Group
3. How marketers are teaching us to recruit via social media
4. The 10 most influential UK marketing groups on LinkedIn
5. How to network on LinkedIn
6. The most popular UK marketing groups on LinkedIn, 2010 (revised)
7. UK marketing jobs advertiser takes social media global
8. Only Marketing Jobs hires social media manager
9. Digital Media MBA Summit 2010: Evolution of Social Media | 7th May 2010
10. Community Vs Social Network – what’s the difference?