This morning I was asked to join [BranchOut](http://apps.facebook.com/ branchout) via Facebook. It’s a tool to assist networking and I’ve joined but don’t know how long I’ll stay. In theory, the more people you are connected to, the greater the opportunity to provide and receive networking referrals. While the theory is great there are practical considerations.
- One more place for you to keep your profile up to date - old information does not facilitate good referrals.
- The same people tend to connect to each other. Outside of LinkedIn (the grandaddy of them all) how many other people does the network bring in and is the extra maintenance time worth it?
BranchOut has facebook integration and that can’t be ignored. I’ll look at it and see what happens. ReferralKey is the same. Ultimately what you get out of these tools is what you have the time to put in. Online professional networks help you find people to talk to. They are not a substitute for conversation.