Business Networking and Dating: A Train Wreck Waiting to Happen

The subject of finding effective online business and social networking just does not want to go away.  I am glad it is not since real Business Networking is needed, not business networking that sucks.

There is an online Business/Social/Community/Dating Networking Site, Direct Matches a.k.a., goaddr.com… (No link to this site provided or recommended since I CANNOT endorse it) that really troubles me and about a million other business people.  It promotes dating as part of the business, social and community environment along with outlandish claims of creating 10’s of thousands of contacts in a short time. 

What it also appears to be doing, from the very short time I was inside this site looking around, to be harvesting contact information. 

Take the dating factor first.  As all business people can agree, or at least better agree, finding a date and doing business does not go together.  The courts are filled with sexual harassment lawsuits where one of the parties felt the pressure from one side or the other that some sort of romance was implied as a condition of doing business.  This site promotes dating as part of what it can produce. 

Don’t get me wrong, dating sites are great, if you are just looking for a date and that is it.   But to promote the sites also produces dating is pure deceptive marketing and just a way to get people to join. 

Now, throw in the fact that becoming a member of this show also is not truly free since they REALLY just want your contacts…HUM, where else have I hear that before…isn’t that what MLM’s are looking for.

No, I think this site needs to take heart in what is going to take place within the internet in the near future where deception is not tolerated and the numbers they claim to have gather works against them.

Bottomline: Either be a Dating site or a Business/Social Site, but not both.  Marketing dating as a byproduct of business and social networking truly can only bee seen as a marketing ploy and I would be concerned to be doing business with anyone in a site using this deception.

It seems that these 3^rd generation sites are really doing everything they can to drawn in their last gasp of air before the pressure of the 4^th generation, Web 2.0 concept business networking sites, moves these type of sites off the internet.

I applaud the University of Arizona for stepping up the process in developing curriculum to help with creating of social and business networking system that clearly work for ecommerce and not for business networking that sucks.

Let me know how I can help.

 

Scot Duke,  President of Innovative Business Golf Solutions, and Host of the Mr Business Golf podcast, provides over 31 years of corporate management experience to helping small businesses improve their marketing strategies. As author of: How To Play Business Golf, Mr. Duke outlines the steps to sucessfully using golf as a business tool.  To learn more about Mr. Duke, IBGS or to purchase How To Play Business Golf visit  www.innovativebusinessgolf.com