I have to confess that my starting point here is not so much 'Facebook is the backyard barbecue; LinkedIn is the office' as 'Facebook is a party you can't leave; LinkedIn is a conference you didn't want to attend in the first place'. But let's elaborate a bit:
I joined Facebook in 2007 and like many people I've become less and less enamoured of it, due to a combination of privacy concerns, unwelcome design and functionality changes, annoying advertising and general encroaching ennui at yet another Farmville update or mystifying quiz. I still have an account but my profile information is now quite minimal and my privacy settings are turned up to 11. I check it every so often for photos and news from distant friends, and I have 'liked' Voices for the Library, but I can't see myself ever using it professionally.
I did join LinkedIn a while ago and was instantly turned off by the labour-intensive profile building process - which is clearly worth spending time on for job-seekers and the self-employed but is harder to knuckle down to when you're already happily employed. I also seem to remember getting lots of irrelevant messages and connection requests (though I imagine this happens less as you build up your profile information?) I didn't like the idea of people selling themselves to me - and I don't have any hiring or purchasing power anyway. Nor did I want to sell myself to other people. However, I have rejoined and will see if I have a better experience this time. I like the idea of being better known, better connected, and better equipped (as Helen puts it), and I can now see the benefits of talking to people in my field even if I'm not actively looking for work. I've found quite a few people from my organisation on there, but am hesitant to 'connect' with them because, well, if I need to talk to them I'll just email/go down the corridor and find them! I think groups could be really useful though and have joined the cpd23 group - hello!
Other networks
For me, Google+ offers the promise of making a clean break from FB - less pressure to 'friend' people back if you don't want to and very little likelihood of my mother-in-law ever joining. It's also nicely intuitive in the familiar Googly style and I really like that I can put everyone I know into tidy categorised circles (hey I'm a cataloguer after all), even if it's not quite that simple in real life. But I haven't explored it fully yet and it's too early to say if it will work for me as a functioning network. Mind you, my 'libraryesque' circle is already my biggest, thanks to Twitter spillover effects :)
I have signed up to LISNPN and like the idea of it, but whether I will ever remember to log in is another matter! I can see myself going there with specific questions or if I'm in general need of peer support. As for CILIP Communities - I'm not currently a member of CILIP (see upcoming Thing 7 post...) but I do use some of their free resources, blogs etc. A lot of the really exciting networking seems to happen outside of CILIP, at least that's my impression...
Photo by Royce Bair on Flickr
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