Social networking for the safety community

February 3rd, 2009 by Julie Ferguson

You’d have to be living under a rock to be oblivious to the revolution that is online social networking – blogging (hey, that’s us!); networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn; social bookmarking services like delicious.com or Stumble Upon; photo sharing sites such as Flickr; video sharing sites like YouTube; microblogging and texting, such as Twitter; and Google mashups. The list could go on. If you find all this confusing, here’s a good little video clip: Social networking in Plain English.
The insurance industry could hardly be described as an early adapter to new web technologies, but now, with safetycommunity.com, we have a social networking site designed for “safety managers, foremen, safety engineers, factory and construction workers, and anyone for whom workplace safety is a profession or passion.” A group with such a shared interest is natural for collaboration, networking and sharing. As of today, there are about 1,000 members registered. We’ve only just begun to explore, but there are shared videos, blog posts, discussion boards, scheduled chats, Twitter feeds, and links to safety communities on some of the major established networking sites. Check it out – there’s a lot to explore. And kudos to Ansell Healthcare of New Jersey, which sponsors and maintains the site.
Next on the agenda – social networking for actuaries?