Social networks link in ways you can't foresee

I've written quite a bit recently about my effort to learn about social networking and how it is useful for journalists (and for the public we serve).

As I expanded my LinkedIn network, I kept asking people to tell me how they found it useful. I shared observations from several of my connections in a separate post, "Learning to LinkIn and what it's worth."

This separate response from Mark Furman of the University of Oregon was worth highlighting in a separate post. It shows that when you start exploring social networks, they are helpful in ways you couldn't anticipate. (They can be annoying in ways you didn't anticipate, too, but so far I'm finding most of them worthwhile.) In these days when so many downsized journalists are looking for work, this looks like a valuable tool (and a way to learn how social-networking works so you can move on to other tools). Here's what Mark had to say:

I'm 33 now, a "digital migrant" who got his first e-mail account as a 17-year-old college freshman. When introduced that same year to the concept of linking from one page to another by making images or text "clickable," I didn't see the point. I stuck with German rather than studying this new language, HTML.

My first reporter/photographer job in 1997 involved film, blue pens, border tape, pica poles and word processors, but no Internet by fiat of the editor. She thought search engines would make for lazy reporters. I like to share that story when journalism students complain sources have yet to return an e-mail, or a story comes in with the inevitable (but unacceptable) lead, "If you Google ..." or "Wikipedia defines ..."

Ryan Teague Beckwith, the Capitol Dome blogger at the Raleigh News & Observer, introduced me to LinkedIn in 2006. I paid him and his future fiance a visit after attending API, and his use of blogs, podcasts and social media for reporting and career networking dominated our discussion.

I signed up for LinkedIn when I got back to Oregon. My first connections were former college classmates and staffers from my college newspaper. I've since connected with former media colleagues.

Anecdotally, the newspaper world has always appeared to be a small one (if not a shrinking one). The few degrees of separation between journalists I've met never has never ceased to amaze me. LinkedIn documents these close circles where our networks overlap.

To what end? Last December, I received my first job offer due to LinkedIn. Someone in Alaska needed a journalist for a four-month contract; she contacted someone in New York City, who notified the journalists in his LinkedIn network. One of them was Beckwith, who notified me via LinkedIn. I applied and was offered the position.

Unfortunately, the timing wasn't right. The offer came a week before the start of winter term at the University of Oregon, and I've never given less than a month's notice to an employer. I elected to continue teaching winter and spring terms.

But the incident illustrates the potential of networks like LinkedIn. This job was not advertised on Journalism Jobs or other sites because it unexpectedly opened up and the publication needed someone yesterday, and the short-term contract meant the employer needed to find someone who was between projects or full-time jobs or ready to run off to Alaska. Enlisting the aid of a network of people who know people almost worked.