Can networking sites boost your career?

When I was in college, a "face book" was a photo directory of all incoming freshmen and their prospective majors. The concept's come a long way since then. Now Facebook is a social-networking site with dozens of peers, including MySpace, LinkedIn and Plaxo. These are online communities where users can post bios, photos and opinions, connect with fellow members, and even post or search for jobs. Hundreds of millions of users are active on such sites today.

Businesses nationwide, hoping to tap into that massive customer potential, have joined the fray by adding their profiles to the mix. But in Southwest Florida, where many companies and professionals do not have an online presence, can social networking sites give businesses an edge?

I asked a few local professionals to set up professionally-oriented pages with MySpace and LinkedIn. A photographer in her 30s, a freelance writer in her 40s and a real estate agent in his 50s were chosen because they did not have profiles on any social networking site and their businesses benefit strongly from the acquisition of new clients.

Meet the testers.

Shari Bare
Wedding photographer
LinkedIn page: www.linkedin.com/pub/0/552/622
MySpace page: www.myspace.com/sharibare

Bare moved here in late 2006 from San Francisco because her fiancé had a job opportunity. Word of mouth and a strong Web site were keys to building her business in California, and she planned to build her Florida base the same way.

"The first thing I did when I got here was join the Naples Association of Wedding Photographers," Bare says. "I spent a lot of my effort just on photographers here, because we refer each other all the time."