I receive a lot of business cards at receptions, trade shows and
meetings. Many people move from one position to another every few years. I
think it is too cumbersome to input all the info into Outlook every time they
transfer unless you have an assistant to do that for you.
Staying in touch with colleagues via LinkedIn saves that time
because they update their online CV by themselves. I receive notices about
their new position, and when I wonder how they are, I can just search them and
learn about their new work. LinkedIn is still a predominantly English-language
platform, so it helps to distinguish people who are comfortable doing business
in English from others, too.
LinkedIn has recently started a system very similar to Facebook in which
one can publish their events or accomplishments with a picture, or express
their view with a link to an article. In these posts, their contacts can “Like”
and/or write comments.
My organization adopts a system called Salesforce, which is a
transparent platform to recognize who did what. I have found it a wonderful
system to help prevent credit stealing and quantify one’s performance easily. But
Salesforce is a complicated system that requires substantial training and know-how to maximize its benefits.
For me, Facebook is primarily for personal use. Similarly, blog is
entirely my hobby. Because I worked as a journalist for a long time, I simply
cannot stop writing. Furthermore, since all business is conducted in English in
my organization, I want to practice writing in Japanese as well.
