I'm on Facebook. Are You? Are Your Clients?

Well, I bit the bullet this week and joined Facebook. Once upon a time, I created a MySpace page (but never used it), and twice I've joined LinkedIn (resulting in two inactive profiles that only highlight my ongoing "identity crisis" caused by having a 15-year professional career in my maiden name, and my attempt for the past four years to "marry" my maiden name with my established personal brand developed with my often-mispronounced "old" name).

But I'm REALLY liking Facebook so far. Unfortunately, it's quite addictive too.

I was inspired to write this post by an e-mail from Jobsearch.about.com talking about online reputation management. The article noted, "There has been a significant increase in Facebook users over 25, with ComScore reporting an 181% increase in users in the 25-34 year old demographic and a 98% increase from those 35 years and older."

I'm not sure which demographic I appear in now, since I joined Facebook last week (just before I turned 35 on Sunday). In any case, I'm trying to persuade my husband to set up a profile (I've got several of my immediate family members in my network already, and almost all of his!). [By the way, he created my avatar, which I'm using as my current profile picture, above.]

I'll write in the future about online reputation management ideas (Wendy Terwelp has a great new program, Rock Your Network Online! that I'm excited to share more about soon), but I just wanted to show off my new profile picture.

Affluent Are Networking Online

According to the latest Wealth Survey from the Luxury Institute, 60% of wealthy Americans participate in online social networks, compared to 27% a year ago. These individuals have an average income of $287,000 a year and an average net worth of $2.1 million.

According to the survey, these individuals belong to average of 2.8 social networks, with roughly 110 connections. The most popular of these are LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and ExecuNet.

Source: ExecuNet, April 2008

Survey: Social Networks Attract Affluent Individuals

Thanks to Robyn Greenspan of ExecuNet for passing along the findings of this survey.

According to the latest Wealth Survey from the Luxury Institute, more than 60 percent of wealthy Americans (those with an average income of $287K and net worth of $2.1M) participate in online social networks -- compared with just 27 percent a year ago.

These affluent individuals are most likely members of 2.8 social networks (with roughly 110 connections). Those with even higher incomes belong to more social networks (3.4 on average).

Here are some of the most prominent social networking sites:

ExecuNet is a closed network which allows members to have a direct connection with thousands of senior-level business leaders.

LinkedIn: One of the most popular social networks for professionals.

Facebook: Originally for students, this network has grown to encompass more professional members -- but is still more often used by the Generation X and Y sets than the Baby Boomers.

I just found out about a new social networking service -- Ning -- that I'm experimenting with. I'll let you know what I think about it once I've had a chance to play around with it.