According to Lee Blaylock, founder and CEO of new business networking site WhoDoYouKnowAt, many business executives are reluctant to share their contact information publicly. For this reason, a number of professionals are hesitant to network through sites like LinkedIn where you have to connect with your colleagues and then make those connections available to anyone wanting to use your connections for an introduction. WhoDoYouKnowAt flips this concept of business networking on its head, letting you control the level of access to your contacts based on who’s asking.
To do so, WhoDoYouKnowAt offers a unique “Levels of Trust” system which allows your online relationships to more accurately reflect those in the real world. With each connection, you can set their “Level of Trust” to reflect your real life relationship. For example, when sharing a contact’s information with some folks, you can choose to remain anonymous. With your more trusted relationships, however, you can choose to share all your network information. For those close connections who you want to invite into your trusted network, you can invite them to “pair” with you, meaning you’ll mutually exchange all your contact information. Unlike with LinkedIn, you don’t “pair” (aka “friend” or “connect”) with all your contacts – just the designated trusted ones.
The site also offers special “In Company” features which let you network among your work colleagues differently than how you network with persons outside the company. With your “In Company” connections, you may choose to reveal a relationship with a high profile contact that you would not share to others outside the company…or the other way around. Also, “In Company” users with Silver or Gold memberships can make unlimited introductions and information requests.
Another unique feature is WhoDoYouKnowAt’s Contact Data Integrity Management option (CDIM). This allows you to control who has access to your current contact information. To set this up, you fill out both your current and formerly valid, but now outdated, contact information. When your data is matched with others’ contact lists, you’re automatically notified. If they still retain your old contact information, you can then choose to grant them access to your new information or ignore the notice without them ever knowing.
Too Complex?
These features are only scratching the surface of what WhoDoYouKnowAt has to offer. The site has been thoroughly thought through, with seemingly every scenario or use case accounted for. There are options like Prospect Lists for connecting with contacts at targeted companies, Alerts, Relationship Rankings, and a Productivity Center for managing your connections.
In fact, if anything, WhoDoYouKnowAt might be overly complex for a niche product that aims to address only the needs of heavy-duty business networkers who find LinkedIn uncomfortably open. (Just look at that chart! Click to maximize). We suppose that, for those folks, WhoDoYouKnowAt could be the perfect solution given all its levels of privacy and trust. However, for the everyday business professional, LinkedIn or even Outlook will probably still suffice…or these days, even Facebook may work.
