This document discusses social networking among Irish entrepreneurs and the benefits of using social networking platforms like LinkedIn. It notes that small and medium-sized enterprises make up over 90% of businesses globally and that social networking allows entrepreneurs to form, develop, and maintain business networks across barriers by providing global access in real time. Statistics on LinkedIn's growth from 2003 to 2010 are presented, showing strong growth among members in Ireland. The document concludes that while social networking can provide benefits to businesses, more research is still needed to understand business networks across Ireland.

1. Ted Vickey Social networking by Irish Entrepreneurs to Form, Develop and Maintain Business Networks

2. How powerful is social networking? …it got this man elected

3. Global populations Over 400M Over 60M Source: Wikipedia, May 5, 2010

4. Benefits of social networking

5. SME in National Economies Micro Small Medium Large lll llllllllll llllllllll llllllllll llllllllll llllllllll llllllllll llllllllll llllllllll llllllllll llllll l  93% Up to 10 ≤ € 2 M 5.9% 11-49 ≤ € 10 M 0.9% 50-249 ≤ € 50 M 0.2% 250+

6. Use of technology to manage social capital

7. LinkedIn Global Reach Fastest Growing EU (by member sign-up, March, 2008) United Kingdom Netherlands France Belgium Denmark Germany Ireland 243k+ 106% increase in just one year! LinkedIn data as of October 2008

9. What is social networking?

10. Literature Review …”professional networking and social capital have become increasingly important to many businesses, especially to the growing number of Irish entrepreneurs” (Nardi et al., 2002) “…the ways in which our lives are made more productive by social ties” (Anderson, 2002) … “interpersonal communication is one of the most important reasons why people use the Internet” (Olsen, 2008)

12. global access,

13. real time,

15. Initial Results of Research

17. 60M members As of Feb 2010 35M members 2008 10M members 2007 8.5M members 2006 4.4M members 2005 1.6M members 2004 85,000 members 2003 The Power of Growth

20. Importance of social capital

21. Myth of Individualism

22. Benefits of social networking (based on lit review):

23. Irish Perceived Benefits of social networking: Likert Scale: 1=Strongly Agree, 5=Strongly Disagree

31. More Work is Needed … “… little is known about the extent of business networks across the island” (Lynch et al., 2009, p. 3)