Are you LinkedIn To Barcelona Networking?

Tuesday, 03 May 2011 07:10

Are you LinkedIn To Barcelona Networking?

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Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

The difference between online social networking and business networking can become blurred. Facebook is still predominantly a personal social network — so it’s probably best to take care that any potential clients don’t see your embarrassing holiday snaps on there! — but many companies still have a significant presence . Twitter is a key tool for communication but business news can get lost in the general chatter on busy days. If you don’t want viral royal wedding or Bin Laden jokes cluttering up your work-related news then the most straightforwardly business-focused social network is undoubtedly LinkedIn.

It has come to serve as a virtual business-card repository, a modern Rolodex with infinite capacity, but its ‘Groups’ function is creating networking clusters that are rapidly gaining popularity.

For Barcelona-based business people, there are a number of groups worth joining that can, as the name suggests, link you into networking circles that you may otherwise have missed. There’s a certain amount of cross-pollination between them but that is the point of networking, after all! In each case, entering the name of the group in LinkedIn’s search function will take you to a registration page.

The one of the biggest groups is Networking Activo, with over eleven thousand members. As you would imagine, it’s very active with lots of discussions and networking meetings. Principally in Spanish but with many foreign members, this group is a good way to get out of the sometimes limited ‘expat ghettoes’. The subgroup Networking Activo en Barcelona has almost two thousand members so there’s plenty of local interest.

Networking Online in Barcelona is a smaller group but still well-populated. Focused on international professionals in the city, it also has a subgroup calledBRUNCHelona which, as the name suggests, is a brunch networking club that meets on Sundays.

Barcelona Connection is a general-focus group that boasts a healthy 1500 members. Its discussion pages reflect this in terms of their level of activity.Entrepreneurs Network Barcelona is the LinkedIn presence of the popular ENB and includes updates and discussion of their regular meetings and activities.

Guiri Group is a pan-Spanish group for foreigners who live here but there is a strong Barcelona presence. This is reflected in the fact that they break out of the realm of virtual networking to meet for real-life business drinks in the city on a semi-regular basis.

To get into Catalan-language networking, it is worth taking a look at NEEC, Nous Empresaris i Emprenedors de Catalunya which is the LinkedIn page of the similarly-titled organisation. The focus of another Catalan group, Networking a Catalunya: idees per sortir de la crisi, is fairly self-explanatory.

With almost 42,000 members, Dirigentes + España is absolutely huge. Still growing rapidly, this LinkedIn monster aims to be a Think Tank for businesses and senior managers. Barcelona Profesionals is smaller but with 8000 members it is still a major LinkedIn hub. Its discussions are in both English and Spanish and focus, as the group title suggests, on linking professionals in the city.

Once you are a member of these groups it is always worth looking at which groups their administrators belong to. There are often smaller, industry-specific networks that could be a perfect fit for your activities.

And of course we’d be remiss to miss the chance to plug BcnIn – Barcelona International Network. Although newly-formed and still developing, this group is worth keeping an eye on for all of the latest Barcelona networking news. Feel free to introduce yourself on our discussion board once you’ve signed up!