I have both accounts. But use them for very different reasons.

I use LinkedIn to connect to people I know and to those I haven’t had a chance to meet in my industry and marketplace. But, strictly for professional purposes. I find that no one turns me down for information or introduction requests. And, it helps to raise our visibility among potential underwriters.

I use a Facebook account as a specific marketing tactic to connect to a defined target. Because we are a college town, I find it my easiest connection to a continuous churning audience. I can announce the stuff they care about and are likely to buy tickets to see and try to glean as much intelligence about they’re interests and buying habits. We’ve been reasonably successful in converting invitation responses to ticket sales. I’m finding that the average age of my facebook friends is much older than you might guess because we are taking the time to sift through profiles to target our invitations. We also find the next generation invitations we receive match closely because they have the same interests and buying behaviors of their friends.

I also have a meetup.com group. I use this for another defined purpose – to find, communicate and connect to people with specific interests. We’ve grown attendance for a monthly program dramatically by mining the meetup communities in the state.

Different tools. Different tactics.

Hope you’re well. And warm. I hope the snow misses you by miles!

I played around with Classmates.com a bit in the past. They do have some interesting features to help you connect with your graduating class and even plan reunions. I found the problem to be excessive marketing on their part. The bait and switch E-Mails really annoyed me. YOu would get an E-Mail saying two of your high school classmates just joined and left you a message. You’d click the link only to find that two people that went to your high school just joined but they graduated 7 years after you did. And the message you got left was from Classmates.com asking you to signup.

I think it’s irrelevant anyway. I don’t remember anything you could do on Classmates that you couldn’t do on Facebook for free. I see Facebook getting used more and more by professionals (even people as old as you and me).

Do you have any info on Classmates.com. I found my high school friends listed there and it is a fee based service so I am leary and not inclined to join.

Perhaps I am getting old(GASP!).