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Venturing out to Social Media
By all accounts, social media tools like LinkedIn and Twitter have proven to be of significant business value for companies seeking to acquire new leads and potential partners. The Internet is awash with thought pieces and “how-to” articles for organizations to get started.
BizSanDiego
Reid Carr
But despite the rage, venture capital and private equity investors have largely resisted embracing these new technologies for their work. Possible explanations include a belief it would not help identify potential opportunities or tip off competing firms as to their strategy and approach. While certainly understandable, reality shows that these concerns are largely overblown and potentially no more hazardous than sending a traditional e-mail. The benefits of leveraging social media tools far outweigh the risks.
What VC firms can get out of it
At its fundamental core, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other such tools are the online equivalent of an industry networking event; people with like-minded interests and complimentary services getting together to exchange ideas, obtain feedback and, quite possibly, conduct business. The difference lies in its reach; LinkedIn and Facebook can help investors and venture capitalists connect people at orders of magnitude above what they could possibly do at a two-hour breakfast meeting.
