UPDATED – Why I finally joined LinkedIn and Facebook

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(UPDATE: See the update at the end of this post.)

I HAVE been holding out. I already have a lot on my plate managing a heavy consulting, research and writing schedule, this blog, 3 Twitter accounts, 2 FriendFeed accounts, 17 FriendFeed rooms, 393 RSS subscriptions, two bookmarking accounts, IM, and about 12 different other social media accounts.

The idea of taking on any more didn’t appeal to me, to put it mildly. The fact that both LinkedIn and Facebook are “walled gardens” or “roach motels” (you can join but never leave) were added reasons to avoid them.

But something changed recently. Facebook hit 150 million users, of which about 11% rate investing as one of their core interests. The site is believed to be adding anywhere from 374,000 to 600,000 new accounts per day.

You can’t ignore that if you’re in investor relations and technology. So about 12 hours ago, I decided I had better bite the bullet and join Facebook for work reasons.

LinkedIn is a slightly different story. It’s popular with the audience that reads this blog. And where you are, I must go, too.

That’s why the first thing I did upon joining LinkedIn was to set up a group called Investor Relations 2.0 for corporate IROs. It’s just a way to bring you the information I find interesting to a site where many of you are gathering.

Increasingly, this is what you as IROs should be thinking about, too. In addition to running your own websites, you need to be managing external outposts on the wider web. That’s just a small part of a much bigger strategy that I’ll be discussing in the future.

And I’ll be doing it here on this blog, on LinkedIn, Facebook, FriendFeed and Twitter.

So, no, I haven’t joined Facebook for entertainment, and I’m not looking for work on LinkedIn. My motives are simply to be closer to you. Thanks to all of you who have welcomed me so warmly.

UPDATE: I quit Facebook on March 1.

Dominic Jones

Dominic (bio & disclosures) is IR Web Report‘s founder and an online investor relations consultant. He advises leading public companies and investor relations service providers worldwide on using the web for disclosure, engagement and profile building. You can contact him via the contacts page.