21st Century Networking: Discovering the World of MySpace

I recently set up an account on the infamous "MySpace" (which my dear cousin refers to as a "that online den of iniquity"). I’m curious to see if it is a good place for business networking. I had thought it was only a showcase for artists and musicians as well as a social network for the under 35 crowd. It never dawned on me that it would be a place for someone in my business, but I was surprised to find thousands of hits when, out of curiosity, I checked for other users who are interested in mortgages and real estate. I guess I’m not the first to think of it, but that’s a good thing --- otherwise I’d be the only one there like me and who would I be networking with?

With a minimum of effort I set up a site and, in a short time, I’ve already connected with a few real estate developers in my area and a few alum from my college. My biggest challenge was deciding on my “handle”. If I call myself just “Carol” then strangers I’m trying to network with won’t get that I’m a mortgage broker or that I’m looking to make business connections. If I call myself “Mortgage Broker” then my own friends won’t know it’s me. My solution, for now anyway, is to call myself “Carol the Mortgage Lady”. Kinda lame, I admit, but it covers both bases. I can always change it. I’ll let you know down the road if this ‘venue’ is worthwhile. Meanwhile, it’s quite an eye-opener just observing the myspace sites people have … it’s a whole different world, a whole different --- rather rude, I must say, way of communicating, but oddly enough, I’m finding myself getting used to it already. If nothing else, maybe this exposure will help me understand my teenagers.

A little sidenote: Before I was in the mortgage business, I worked for a long time at a company called Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) where extremely brilliant computer and networking gurus, in conjunction with their peers at a few other government contractors, developed a little thing called the "Internet" (well, originally it was its predecessor "Arpanet"). For years I was a fly on the wall observing the development of this thing that allowed us to sit at our desks and send messages to co-workers down the hall or people across the country. Pretty neat, especially since none of my friends knew what I was talking about when I would mention things like "email" and "ftp'ing files". It's been fun to watch this technology evolve over the years --- and, especially now that I'm not involved in the internet business anymore, it's fun to be on the user side of the fence and really appreciate how useful it is. Like it or not, it’s incredible that I can sit at my desk and, in a matter of minutes, join a community of over 10 million other people and fairly easily find new people to network with. And that’s just MySpace, which is only one of many places like it. When you think of all the websites and user groups out there, it’s an incredible time to be alive in terms of communication.

We’ll see if MySpace turns out to be a good place for me as far as business networking. Meanwhile, if any of you are users and you care to pay me a visit, I’m at www.myspace.com/cluddecke.