You guys have heard me talk about my experience with Facebook and Linkedin before, but it’s been while so I thought it’s time to give an update.

I refer to them as my Hacienda’s -- my motto – come on in, sit a spell, take a look around, talk about what’s on your mind.

Alrighty, let’s get down to the latest details:

Facebook – I now have 155 friends.  What’s happened recently is I’m getting more “personal” friends connecting with me, vs. business partners as I did when I first started.  So I’m now connecting with folks from high school, college, social organizations, etc.  But still the majority of the friends are business side.  My profile hasn’t changed much – still very business focused, but I have been uploading some family photos, etc.  And I’m getting more comfortable in talking about personal stuff vs. business speak.  As a marketing medium… lots of info on people, but I don’t see it being used for targeting as much as I’d originally thought.   And the ads that are being served up to me aren’t at all relevant.  The social side of gathering people together I believe still has promise, but I haven’t seen great examples as yet.  Also, don’t know about you, but I don’t like the new format – too clunky/disjointed and my time “on line” with the site I’m sure has fallen off because of this.

Linkedin.com – Amazingly I have 611 connections.  All of them are business.  I recently had a presentation from the linkedin.com sale team and I see this site really starting to mature into a viable advertising/marketing vehicle.  First, they can target on any of the info you put into your profile – so the ads I receive are very targeted and relevant to me as a user.  Second, I like the questions section on the site – where folks can help others/answer questions, etc.  Great for connecting on business development, etc.  Third, surveying on the site is coming into maturity… this is where a question is poised by a company or well know business executive (targeted naturally) – a great tool to help with all sorts of things – product design, image management/metrics/idea generation, etc.  The area that I believe needs development is more relevant applications that can be added to your page.

Your thoughts as always are what this is all about… so feel free to comment!

Scott